SG1 in Atlantis
by luli27
Summary: Xover with Atlantis. SG1 and Jack go to Atlantis on a vacation and chaos ensues. I wasn't sure whether to put it here or on Atlanis, but decided on here.
1. Chapter 1

SG1 in Atlantis

**AN**: ok, this is a future fic, only three years but still in the future. As any of you who have read any of my fics know, I'm a shipper. So, here I'm making a couple of assumption that should really come as no surprise to anyone that has read my other fic: Sam and Jack are together and so are Tayla and John. Ok, that's it for author's note.

**Disclaimer**: they don't belong to me, though I really wish they did. Neither does the whole concept of Atlantis or a city control mentally, I'm just playing with it.

Chapter 1

"Incoming message from the Daedalus, Dr. Weir," called Mike, the young technician manning the communications counsel in the control room.

"Patch it through," replied Dr. Elizabeth Weir as she came into the control room from her office. Col. John Sheppard, Tayla and Dr. Rodney Mckay followed closely behind. They had been having a nice, friendly chat as they waited for the scheduled arrival of the Daedalus. The ship had been making periodic trip between the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies for the last three years. It usually stayed around for a couple of months stay each time it came back with supplies, to do a bit of exploring and help the Atlantis expedition with whatever it needed. This time, however, it was only stopping to drop off the supplies and new personnel and to take the back the personnel that were scheduled to go back to Earth for either a vacation or re-assignment – there was some sort of test that it would be taking when it got back to Earth. Since this would be a pretty much pit stop, all of the leaders of Atlantis wanted to be on hand to at least exchange greeting with the crew, who had over the years become friends.

"Atlantis? This is Col. Coldwell at the Daedalus."

"Col. Coldwell, this is Dr. Weir. How was the trip?"

"Dr. Weir, hi. It was a smooth ride; we've done it so many times now I think most of us could do it in our sleep."

"Well, I'm glad it was uneventful thought I hope most of you stayed awake for it," teased Dr. Weir. The last three years had seen a nice friendly relationship developed between the Dr. and the Col., though it hadn't started out like that. At first Dr. Weir and Col. Coldwell had butted heads, his military ways of looking at and doing things hadn't really meshed too well with the Dr.'s more relaxed way of doing things. Fortunately, after a while the Col. had learned to appreciate the Dr.'s viewpoint and the Dr. had learned to respect the Col's. And just as she'd had with Sheppard, she had been able to established a comfortable working relationship with the new Col. Of course, the fact that he wasn't around all that much and John was still the senior military officer most of the time helped a lot.

"I didn't say the trip was uneventful, Dr. Believe me, we had no trouble staying awake." the Col. teased right back.

"I thought you said you had a smooth ride?" asked Dr. Weir, sharing a confused look with the members of AG1.

"Yes, the ride itself was smooth – no surprises on the way. But some of the passengers kept us on our toes. And I don't mind saying, as nice as it was to have them on board, we're kind of glad they're staying with you guys." The Col. almost seemed to be choking back laughter and his tone of voice, which said he was glad the problem was now in the Alanteans hands, brought a bit of anxiety to the confusion evident on the faces of everyone present in the control room.

"Um, Col," said Dr. Weir, a bit apprehensively, "are you talking about some of the transferees?" she asked, really, really hoping the answer was no. They already had more than enough 'problematic' personalities in the city (McKay, Kavenaugh, and yes even Sheppard, to name but a few) they didn't really need anymore. Just thinking about it started giving Elizabeth a headache.

"No, they are not transferees," answered the Col., to the obvious relief of everyone in the room, "I'd say they are more like visitors, who wanted a chance to see your fair city." The Col. finished explaining.

Elizabeth was now more confused than ever, up until now the Daedalus had only brought supplies and personnel that would be stationed here, replacing those going back to Earth. There had never been any 'tourists', which was how the Col. made these arrivals sound. But Elizabeth was nothing if not diplomatic, "Well, we'll be happy to have them. It's been a while since we've visitors from Earth." At the looks that both John and Rodney were giving her, she amended her statement, "well, actually we've never really had visitors from Earth had we? I'm sure it'll be an experience."

"Oh, I'm sure that it'll be that, all right. I can almost guarantee it." The laughter could now be clearly heard in his voice.

The Col. seemed to be enjoying saying things to alarm the people of Atlantis, Elizabeth couldn't help but notice. She again shared looks with the John and Rodney, all of the wondering who could possibly be coming to visit them.

"Ok, Atlantis. We're ready to start beaming down your supplies and personnel."

"And we're ready to receive them. Would you just beam the supplies to the storage area and the personnel to their respective areas?"

"No problem. And where should we beam down your guests?"

Having no idea who the guests were, Elizabeth really didn't think they could be sent anywhere but the control room. Besides, she really should welcome them personally since she was the leader of the city; she welcomed everyone that arrived in Atlantis but over time she'd discovered that it was just more efficient to welcome the new transferees after they've talked with their direct supervisors and settled down a bit. "Right here would be just fine, Col."

"All right they'll beam down momentarily. And I'll contact you again once all the transfers are down. Daedalus out."

As soon as the Col. finished speaking, there was the bright flash of white light that was the signature of the Asgard beam. When the light cleared, the Atlantis crew was utterly surprised at who they saw: standing before them was no one else than SG1 and Gen. Jack O'neill. _The _SG1 and Gen. Jack O'neill, legends of Stargate Command that had saved the planet countless times – no one had even thought to image they could be ones coming here; it was completely unexpected but certainly an honor.

As soon as John saw the General, he straighten up from where he was leaning against a console and sharply saluted, "General, sir." Both Elizabeth and Tayla were amused to see how fast he went from slouch to perfect military position complete with heels coming together – definitely _not_ something they saw every day as John was a very laid back kind of guy.

The Gen. returned the salute but then said, "relax Sheppard, I'm not here for an inspection."

Elizabeth stepped forward with her hand extended to greet the Gen. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Gen. But if you don't mind my asking, why are you here?"

"Oh," Jack said waving his arm around, "you know we were just in the neighborhood."

"I see," said Elizabeth but it was clear by her tone of voice she really didn't.

"No, you don't," the blond standing next to Jack said, smiling at Elizabeth. "Dr. Weir, hello. It's nice to see you again."

"Elizabeth please, we're not too formal here," Elizabeth said, shaking her hand, "and it's nice to see you too, Col. Carter."

"Actually it's O'neill now, but please call me Sam." Sam said to the considerable surprise of most of those present, although none was more surprise than Rodney if his gaping mouth and eyes were any indication; it appeared that not much social news from Earth had made it way to Pegasus.

"Of course, Sam. And forgive me; I hadn't heard that you and the Gen. had married. My congratulations, I hope you're very happy."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Sam replied waving her hand as if to sweep it away, "no reason why you should have, really. And thank you, we are very happy."

"Yes, we are," said Jack with a tender smile in Sam's direction. "And please call me Jack; I'm not that much for formalities myself."

At that, Daniel snorted and said, "aint that the truth." He then stepped up to shake Elizabeth's hand. "Dr." he began but at her narrowed eyes, he smiled and corrected himself, "Elizabeth, it's a pleasure to see you again, especially here."

Elizabeth shook his hand and had to smile at the awed expression on his face at he kept trying to look at everything at once, "Dr. Jackson, I see you finally made it to Atlantis."

"Please, it's Daniel. And yes, I'm finally here and it only took me four years," this was said with a reproachful glare at Jack who ignored him in favor of looking around; it seemed that he too was fascinated with Atlantis. "I can tell you I'm dying for a tour."

Now it was Jack's turn to snort, "Yes, we all know that, Danny. But maybe we can finished the introductions before you start with the 100 questions and run off to God knows where, uhm?"

Daniel made a face at Jack but stepped back to let him introduce the rest of the team.

"Elizabeth, I'm sure you remember Teal'c" Jack said waving towards the tall Jaffa.

Teal'c inclined his head and said "It's a pleasure to see you again, Dr. Weir."

Elizabeth inclined her head and replied, "you too, Teal'c." She didn't insist that he call her by her giving name, knowing full well it'd be a wasted effort on the always formal Jaffa.

"And this is Lt. Col. Mitchell, the new leader of SG1." Jack finished the introductions waving his hand to the last of the group that had beamed down from the Daedalus.

"Col. Mitchell, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Same here, Ma'am. And please call me Cameron." Cameron said shaking her hand and smiling charmingly at her, something Rodney noticed and didn't much care for; he really wasn't too fond of Air Force pilots, despite the fact that John was one of his best friends, they tended to be too full of themselves in his opinion – an opinion John found hilarious and totally ironic given the size of the self-proclaimed genius's ego.

Elizabeth smiled, "then it's Elizabeth. And welcome, all of you, to Atlantis." She said smiling at everyone in the group and extending her arm to indicate the control and embarkation room.

"It's amazing," Sam said with awe.

"Yes," Elizabeth agreed with a small smile. "But please let me introduce you to my first team. Well, you all know Col. Sheppard and Dr. Mckay." She indicated the two that were a bit behind her.

A chorus of 'yes' and 'how are you' was heard from the new arrivals, except for Cameron how stepped up to the two men to shake their hands and said, "I haven't had the pleasure before."

John shook Cameron's hand and with a nod said, "please, it's John and Rodney. Like the lady said we're not too formal around here."

"That's right; Cameron didn't join the SGC until about a year after you guys left. He hasn't met any of you before." Sam said as it dawned on her for the first time; Cameron had been a part of SG1 for three years and Sam and the guys had by now completely accepted him. So much so, that sometimes they forgot that it had only been three years since he'd joined them – he really was part of the family.

"Oh," said Elizabeth, then she motioned for Tayla to come up, "and this is Tayla, an Athosian that has been with us from the beginning. She's an integral part of AG1 and of our community. But more importantly, she's a trusted and dear friend."

Tayla inclined her head in greeting, but she also offered her hand; she had been a member of the Atlantis community long enough that she was used to their of greeting, "It is an pleasure and honor to meet you. I have heard quite a bit of your adventures from Elizabeth and Rodney."

Jack shook her hand and returned the sentiment, "We've also heard a lot about you. It's a pleasure to meet one that has been such a great allied of our friends here." As head of Homeworld Security, Jack had read all of the reports of the Atlantis crew and knew how much of a help Tayla has been. At the General's words, John couldn't help but puffed up in pride, Tayla really was a treasure and it was gratifying for him that his superior officer and the guy in charge of everything Stargate, no less, acknowledge that.

As Tayla finished shaking hands with the rest of SG1, Elizabeth suggested, "Maybe we'd be more comfortable in the conference room?"

Jack agreed and with a sweep of his arm said, "lead the way."


	2. Jack a Workaholic?

SG1 in Atlantis

**Disclaimer**: they don't belong to me, though I really wish they did. Neither does the whole concept of Atlantis or a city control mentally, I'm just playing with it.

Chapter 2 (Jack a Workaholic?)

Elizabeth led the group into the conference room and took her accustomed seat at the head of the 'table'. AG1 also settled into their usual seat and SG1 and Gen. O'neill sat on the other side of the table-like structure.

"Nice," was Jack's comment as he entered the conference.

"Yes, we like it," was John's reply.

Sam looked between the two men as she was sitting down and thought that they just might be more alike than anyone had realized – not an all too comforting thought, actually more like a scary thought. She already had more than enough trying to keep both Jack and Cameron in line, not to mention playing referee between them and Daniel; she really didn't need an additional 'kid' to look after. And then she thought, 'let him be Elizabeth's problem', not a very charitable thought but a 'Col. had to do what a Col. had to do' she added with an internal smirk.

"Well," Elizabeth began as she folded her hands on top of the table.

Sam saw that Elizabeth notsure how to broached the subject diplomatically so she saved her the trouble, "you're probably wondering why we're here."

"Yes, now that you mentioned it, I am," Elizabeth said with a relieved glance in Sam's direction.

"That's somewhat of a long story," Daniel cautioned her.

"Oh, we have time, don't worry; there's nothing really urgent. We usually try and clear the day we know the Daedalus will be dropping by." Elizabeth assured them with a smile.

"Ok, well it all began when we found out that Jack had turned into a workaholic." Sam began.

"Really?" Elizabeth really didn't mean to sound so disbelieving but that wasn't the impression she'd gotten from the man when she was in charge of the SGC; it hadn't been all that long, granted, but still . . . As she looked around the table she saw that she wasn't only one surprised, if Rodney's barely concealed snort was any indication. She glared at him and he settled down, some.

"Yes, it took all of us by surprise too," Sam agreed with the expressed disbelieve as Daniel shook his head as if he still couldn't believe it.

"Oh, for crying out loud! I've always gotten my work done, you know, yet, you guys are carrying on as if my doing my job was a big surprise." Jack exploded throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"Yes, dear, we know," Sam reassured him, patting the hand he'd settled back on the table. As an attempt to sooth him, it didn't really work as he just glared at her; but it did quiet him down. She did, however, had to smother a grin as he settled back on the chair, crossing his arms and pouting as if he was a five year old that hadn't gotten his way.

Shaking her head at how childish her fifty plus years old her husband could act, Sam turned to looked at Elizabeth. Only to find that the Dr. was trying to smother her own smile; and as she turned and looked around the table, Sam found that everyone was finding Jack's antics vastly amusing. She also saw that Tayla was looking between John and Jack with a look of recognition in her eyes. Catching her eye, Sam could see that Tayla knew exactly what Sam had to deal with on a daily basis; 'yep,' she thought, 'this two are two peas in a pod. God help us all.' In that moment, Sam also confirmed her suspicion that Tayla and John were more than just team mates; how much more, she'll figure out later. But now, she had a story to continue. And she better try and placate her husband too, otherwise they'd be dealing with a seriously annoyed Jack O'neill; and really no one want that.

"Jack, you have to acknowledge, that while you got all your work done, you never really went out of your way to get it done on time. And you certainly never stay late to get _ahead_ of the paperwork. Goodness Jack, how many memos did you lose when you were in SG1? How many times did Gen. Hammond have to order you to get your reports done because they were late? You know you've always hated paperwork and used any and all excuses to get out of it. So, how can you be surprised at _our_ surprise that you've been staying late doing your work?"

Jack knew that everything Sam was saying was true, that, however, did not mean that he had to agree with it, and not just because he was being petulant, but because he had a point too. "How about because I've always being responsible and never shirked my duty, no matter how much I fooled around? Or how about because you know that the new job" (he'd been head of Homeworld Security for three years now, and he still referred to it as new; after all it wasn't the nine years he'd had at the SGC), here Jack stopped noting for the first time that they were not alone, and that he'd gotten way more serious that he'd meant.

Sam alsorealizing that they were not alone and that she just might have given the wrong impression about the General's work ethic, responded, "Jack, we all know how dedicated you are to the Air Force," the look she gave him said 'didn't it take us nine years to get together because of it?' The small smile Jack got meant he'd gotten the message. "But you can't deny that you hate paperwork, can you?"

'No,' Jack thought, 'can't very well deny that.' So, he just shrugged and looked down as his fingers starting tapping on the table. Sam knew this meant he'd calmed down.

She looked back at Elizabeth and kept going, "You can't image my complete and utter shock when his doctor told me he had collapsed from overwork." Silently she added, 'nor my complete and utter fright when I heard it.' She turned to look at Daniel and Teal'c and knew by the look in their eyes that they had felt the same way as she when she told them about it. Jack always looked so strong, vital and almost indestructible that the news he'd collapse had thrown them for a loop – especially when they heard it was because of _paperwork_; they hadn't known whether to laugh or cry. There was the man that had survived two Ancient download, an ancient plague, torture at the hands of one of the most sadistic System Lord and that was just some of the highlight, and he'd been brought down by paperwork? The irony was incredible. But while Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were reliving those moments Jack was getting indignant.

At the word 'collapsed', he'd straighten in his chair and giving his wife a death glare, stated very clearly, enunciating every word carefully, "I. did. Not. Collapse." And the last word was said with a sneer.

Daniel, trying to lighten the mood into which Sam, Teal'c and himself had fallen, said with a smirk and a patently false soothing tone of voice (a combination that he'd probably learned from Jack himself), "Of course not, Jack. You just . . . what?" and he tapped his chin as he pretended to look for the right word, "fainted?" At Jack's growled "Danny", Daniel pretended confusion and, trying not to smile, kept going, "no? ok, didn't faint either. So how about . . ."

"Danny boy, you'd better stop." Jack softly warned him.

Daniel knew that Jack was at his most dangerous when he went quiet like that. Unfortunately for Jack, Daniel had lost any trace of fright he might have ever felt towardshim years ago. Still, he just raised up his hands as if in surrender, figuring he'd teased Jack enough for the time being. Finally giving in to his grin, he leaned back into his chair and quieted down. Jack knew that the quiet wouldn't last long, but having gained the upper hand for the moment, he too leaned back in his chair and let Sam continued with her story.

"Anyway," Sam ignored the by-play and kept going, "the doctor informed me that Jack's blood pressure was through the roof, as was his cholesterol and sugar levels. He was also borderline anemic and somewhat dehydrated."

She was interrupted by Jack muttering as he fidgeted in his seat, "Doctors, what the hell do they know? Bunch of power fiends, like to feel important by making everyone else miserable." Jack wasn't comfortable talking about his health in front of others like this, but knew that Sam was doing it so that they willall keep their eyes on him; which would be a real pain in his six. But he also knew that behind the calm exterior, she was real concerned about him and nothing he said would change that; so, he let her do whatever she felt she needed to do. Not that he could really stop her, stars or no when it came to his health it had somehow been decided (and he still wasn't sure when and if he'd been involved in the decision at all) she was the one in charge and she could be as strict and unbending as some of the worst drill sgts. he'd known.

"The doctor recommended a vacation," as seemed to be normal, Sam just ignored him again, "but Jack here, decided he knew best and showed up at work like always the next day."

"He's never listen to doctors," Daniel added shaking his head in sympathy with Sam.

"Or his wife apparently," Sam added with a death glare of her own at her husband. Jack flinched inwardly when he saw it, but managed to maintain an innocent who-me expression on his face as he looked back at her. Not believing that innocent expression for a minute, Sam ignored it and turned back to look at the others as she resumed the story, "Well, he may ignore his doctor and wife but even him can't ignore the president."

"Of the United States?" asked John with awe and disbelieve on his voice. John had been enjoying the interaction between husband and wife; it amused him to no end that a man as powerful and dangerous (the man had been a legend _before_ there'd been an SCG because of his Special Ops. career) as Gen. O'neill was, could be so completely managed by his wife, and all without uttering much more than a token protest. He'd had been much less amused if he'd realized that he was managed just as much as the General by the woman in his life. But though John had known Jack O'neill was an important man, he hadn't known he was so important that the President of the USA would take a personal interest in his health.

Sam turned and looked at John, smiling at his incredulity, "Yes, of the United States. He's a very nice man and quite fond of Jack."

Jack shrugged again, uncomfortable with the looks he was receiving and with the idea that he was someone 'important'. "Yeah, well, save the planet a couple of times and important people start to like you all of the sudden." Jack said, as always trying to down play his own worth.

John knew that it had been more than a couple of times that the planet had been saved because of the actions of SG1 and in particular Gen. O'neill. He also knew that he had a special relationship with the Asgards. So it did make sense that the President be interested in the health of such a valuable and important man.

Sam just shook her head, used to Jack disliked for praise. "As the President is the Commander in Chief, _General_ O'neill," and she put extra emphasis on the rank, "had no choice but to follow orders."

Daniel snorted at that, knowing how much Jack _loved_ following those kinds of orders. Sam again ignored Daniel's snort and Jack subsequent glare, "Jack was ordered to take at least two months off."

"That's all very well and good, but why did you choose Atlantis as your 'vacation' spot." Elizabeth was genuinely curious. It wasn't that she wasn't glad to see them but Atlantis just wasn't on any travel brochure and up until now no one but military personnel or scientist assigned there had ever come. It just was too top secret and too expensive to get there. Although with the security clearance this group had the top secret portion wasn't really a problem and since it seemed they were good friends with the President the expensive part probably wasn't either. All of which still didn't explain why _they_ would choose to come to another galaxy, one which was still in the midst of a great war.

"Well, you see, Atlantis really wasn't our first choice," Sam began.

"It'd have been mine," Daniel muttered, apparently unable to keep quiet for more than five minutes at a time. But a glare from Sam quieted him and brought a sneer to Jack's lips – he sure loved to see Sam reprimand someone other than him.

"He came over to Colorado Springs, we figured we'd just take it easy and laze around the house. I was on down time but would be close enough in case anything happened at the base and they needed my help."

Now it was Jack who couldn't stop the snort as he muttered, "something always happens that only she can fix." Sam glared at him, but he ignored her and said, "And you know the irony of that is that I left DC because she thought if I'd stayed I would be called in to work because of some crisis and wouldn't relax. But of course it was perfectly fine for her to stay in contact in case they needed her, which of course they did less than two days later."

Sam wanted to contradict him, but she couldn't because he was right and she knew it– what was worse he knew that she knew it. So, she did the only thing she could and ignored him again. "Unfortunately, they called me in and he came with me so that he wouldn't be left alone and bored at home. The problem took me a bit longer to fix that I had originally thought and when I went in to report to Gen. Landry that it was done I found none other than my dear husband, who had promised that he would only go to either bug Daniel in his lab or eat jello in the cafeteria" she shot Jack another glare and he just gave her an innocent smile back, "sitting very comfortably in the General's office going over mission reports and plans for future missions." Everyone could tell how infuriated she had been at that discovery by the way the memory was still setting her off.

Everyone could also see that Col. Mitchell seemed to be very uncomfortable all of the sudden. They all realized why when Sam turned the full power of her glare, which she had learned from Jack, on him, "and you, you were there to keep him from those types of situations not to help him get in them."

Mitchell shrugged his shoulders and tried to defend what he knew to Sam was the un-defendable, "What could I do? On leave or not, he's still my superior. I couldn't very well tell either him or Gen. Landry what to do, now could I?"

Jack was sneering at Cameron's predicament; he knew Cameron could not and would not have stopped him. As the man said, Jack was his superior officer and Cameron was too good an officer to try and tell a superior officer what to do. He knew that now and he had known it then, which was why he'd been able to get away with going to Hank's office and talk shop to the man. He wouldn't have been able to do that if Daniel or Teal'c had been the watchdog Sam had saddled him with. He'd been friends with both men for far too long to be able to intimidate either one with his rank, not that he had ever intimidated Teal'c or Daniel long for that matter. But Cameron, now Cameron was another story; _he_ Jack could still bully – you really gotta love Air Force rank and chain of command, which was a completely ironic thought for a man that had made insubordination an art form.

But for all his rank, Jack had known that if he got caught by Sam he'd be in trouble; it seems superior rank got thrown out the window once you marry a subordinate – at least it did if the subordinate was Sam. But he had figured that if Sam didn't want to upset him too much, she would not yell at him for too long. He had also known that Cameron and maybe even Hank wouldn't be so lucky; but perverse man that he was, Jack had enjoyed that thought, he had even almost wanted to get caught just to see her go off on them. And boy, had he gotten his wish. He had _really_ enjoyed seeing her put them in their place; of course he had had to be really careful to keep his enjoyment from her or she would have forgotten about his high blood pressure and really let him have it. But that didn't mean that he couldn't relish the memory in the privacy of his own mind, as he was doing now.

He wasn't the only one that was enjoying that memory. Daniel snorted a laugh and told Cameron, "I don't see why not, Sam didn't see to have any problem with it." Sam had the grace to look sheepish as Daniel, grinning from ear to ear, went on to recount the incident, "I had just finished the translation I'd been working on when I ran into Sam, who was also on her way to Gen. Landry's office. So I was right there when Sam found Jack doing exactly what he had promised not to do. You should have seen the look on her face," he told the Atlantis crew, who were fascinated by this amusing tale, "I don't think I've seen her quite so mad in a long while," he stopped to consider that and added, "if ever really. Sam has an incredible ability to keep her temper in check in most situations; she'd have to, really, to deal with Jack. That's not to say she doesn't have a temper, she does; she just doesn't really lose it all that often." He went on to explain.

Jack, who had been trying to keep a low profile so as not to provoke Sam further, couldn't keep his snort quiet. _He_ had seen Sam mad plenty of time, and though that time had been a beauty, it hadn't been the worst. He internally flinched when he remembered _that_ occasion, and then banished the memory again, so not something he wanted to remember.

As Sam had done before him, Daniel ignored Jack and kept on going, "but what almost made me laugh out loud were the looks on the faces of Cameron, and Gen. Landry. You should have seen them. They looked like two kids that had gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar and knew they were going to pay for it and there was no escaping it." Daniel turned to look at the man in question and was not surprised to find that Cameron was wearing a very similar look now. "But Jack, now Jack just had this supremely innocent expression and just looked at Sam, smile and said 'all done, dear?' And Sam looking as she was going to blow a gasket said, 'Jack, what are you doing?' And he answered 'nothing important, honey. We're just going through a few un-important things, you know to pass the time.' Trying to pass off the many folders and important documents visible on the desk as 'nothing important' when it was blatantly obvious that they had been doing some very important, official SGC business, which Jack had expressly been told to avoid. Sam knew this; not only is she a genius but Jack's innocent looks have really stopped working quite a long time ago."

It was clear Jack didn't like hearing that, as he frowned rather ferociously at Daniel.

Once again, Daniel ignored him as he went blithely on, "the look on his face when he realized he'd been caught and wasn't getting out of it was priceless, they all were really." And Daniel couldn't help but laugh as he remembered them.

"Danny," Jack growled in warning.

But Daniel just waved him off and ignored him, "Sam just told him 'I'll deal with you later,' then She turned to Cameron and told him, 'I thought you were going to keep an eye on him for me; make sure he wasn't doing anything he shouldn't be doing. Is this how you keep an eye on him? Is this how you keep him out of trouble? Really, Cameron, I thought you had more sense than this. This' she emphasized with a sweep of her arm over the folders, 'is exactly what he should have been avoiding.' And when Cameron tried to defend himself she just put up one hand and said, 'I really don't want to hear it, Cameron. I'm very disappointed in you.' Cameron just hung his head, knowing from her tone of voice that any arguing would be futile."

John couldn't resist looking over at Cameron, to see how he was taking all this; he found him involved in a very intense study of his fingernails, doing his best to ignore the laughs he knew everyone was going to have at this expense later on. Before turning his attention back to Daniel, John turned to look at how the General was taking all this. But Jack was a man used to being teased by his best friends and this wasn't even the worst he'd ever gotten, so he appeared completely unmoved by it all. Though by the smirk he had in his face when he looked over at Cameron it appeared that he was enjoying the teasing Cameron was getting.

John turned back to listen as Daniel started on what Sam said to General Landry, "after she was done with Cameron she turned to the General and just looked at him for a few seconds. I'm sure the Gen. and Cameron were thinking that she was getting her temper under control before she said something she'd later regret to her CO. But Jack and I knew better; I mean she hasn't spend the last dozen or so years around Jack for nothing." At this Jack actually looked proud; noticing this, Sam couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. All of the things he'd taught her, it was just like him to be proud of her insubordination skills.

She was debating whether she should stop Daniel from going on with this story. It really didn't cast her in the best light; she had been incredibly insubordinate with her CO after all. But she had started the story telling with a specific purpose. She'd wanted to let the others know that Jack was here on a vacation and not to solve their problems – the fact that the problems they had in Atlantis were completely different from the ones they'd dealt with back on Earth didn't change the fact that Jack was a great tactician and his experience was invaluable, so she'd wanted to nip in the bud any idea of going to him for help. He was here for a vacation and that was that. But she'd known that Jack would object to her saying any such thing; and while she normally had not problem with doing what she thought best even if it annoyed him, she didn't want to upset him unduly right now. So, she'd figure telling it as a humorous tale would work. Oh, he'd know what she was doing; but knowing his twisted sense of humor, she also knew he would enjoy it and wouldn't make such a fuss about it.

But now, Daniel was really embarrassing her and maybe it was time to stop him; he really was enjoying this too much. On the other hand, Jack was also enjoying it and had calmed down. And it wouldn't hurt for the others to see just how serious she was in making sure her husband was allowed to relax as he needed to; if she stood up to her CO then there really wasn't much she wouldn't do, was there? With a smirk of her own, she settled back down and let Daniel go on with the story – at least for a little while more.

"After knowing her three years and Jack for at least that long, they really should have known better too. But I guess her perfect soldier act had fooled them." This was said with a slight smirk in Sam's direction, to which Sam responded by sticking her tongue out at him; a bit childish perhaps, but when in Rome. . .

"After a few minutes of silence, during which Sam was probably getting what she wanted to say just right, she started on the General. She began all military and proper calling him 'Sir' and everything, that didn't last long however."

John noted that by this point in the story Cameron had gotten over his embarrassment and while he was still looking at his hand he was now smirking too; apparently he too found the memory of Sam going off on their CO vastly amusing.

"'Sir', she began 'did I or did not I tell you that Gen. O'neill had been given strict instruction by his doctor to avoid any and every conversation about work; any and every situation that could possibly cause him any hint of anxiety? Did I or did not I tell you that the President himself has ordered him to take it easy and to have nothing to do with work _what so ever_ for at least two months?' Her voice had being steadily increasing since she began and by this point she was well on her way to yelling. What's more she wouldn't let Landry talk. Every time he opened his mouth to say something, to somehow defend himself, she would ignore him and keeping talking, deliberately keep making her points and as her voice kept going up, the only way for Landry to be heard over her was to engage her in a shouting contest. And he really didn't want to that; he was wrong and there was nothing he could say really, so after a while he just let her talk and sat back to take his punishment like a good soldier."

'Ok, enough is enough,' thought Sam. Daniel was making her sound like a shrew and it was time to take control of the story and direct it to where she wanted it to go. With that thought, she straighthen in her seat and after softly clearing her voice said, "Daniel, that's enough."


	3. Thor in Minnesota

SG1 in Atlantis

Chapter 3 (Thor in Minnesota)

Sam took over the story once again. "Since it seemed very clear after that incident that Jack wouldn't get the rest he needed if we stayed in Colorado because chances were if I stayed I would be call back into the SGC and Jack couldn't be trusted to behave if left alone," here she turned and gave Jack a severe look, which Jack returned with his typical innocent smile, "we decided to head to Jack's cabin in Minnesota."

"Seems like a reasonable plan. A cabin in Minnesota seems like a good place for a vacation." said Elizabeth.

"Yes, Jack's cabin is really beautiful and peaceful. We got there without incident and Jack was starting to relax."

"Yeah, the fishing had been going pretty good." Jack added with a small smile as he remembered the lazy hours spent in front of the lake doing nothing.

"Uh huh, I bet you didn't catch anything, did you Jack?" Daniel asked, he knew Jack's attitude towards fishing.

"Nope, you know that it's the _act_ of fishing and not how many fish you catch, Daniel."

"Yes, Jack I know. You have told us repeatedly." Daniel said in a tone of voice that said they've this discussion many, many times but he still found it somewhat amusing.

As entertaining as the bickering between Gen. O'Neill and Dr. Jackson was, John wanted to get back to the story. There had to be more to it than that, otherwise how did they get from Minnesota to Pegasus? "I'm guessing that something other than fishing happened?"

"Yes, the Asgards happened." Sam said, and her tone of voice left no doubt as to how she felt about the intrusion.

"The Asgards?" asked Tayla.

"My buddy Thor thought it was a good time to come and pay us a visit." Jack said as if having an alien, a Supreme Commander at that, come for a visit was the most normal thing to have happen.

"Thor?" Tayla asked again; she knew that the Asgards were allies of the people of Earth but she really knew nothing about them beyond that. Sure, she had met Hermoid a few times; but he wasn't what one what call communicative and if he was typical of his race Tayla really didn't see how one could be called 'buddy' or would just drop in for a visit.

Sam saw the puzzled look on Tayla's face and realized that the young woman probably didn't know much about the Asgards or how Jack was on such good terms with them. "Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. He's been our friend for years now, every since we help them withsome problems they had," Sam saw no reason to get into the whole replicator thing at the moment; there was not reason to do so. "But for some reason he seems to get along better with Jack."

"He probably finds him more amusing than the rest of us." Daniel couldn't help adding to tease his friend some more.

"Hey, he's my buddy. You're just jealous because he likes me better than you." Jack said, never able to stop himself from getting into a childish one-upmanship game with Daniel.

"However," Sam said in a voice a bit louder to stop Daniel and Jack from really getting into it, "he wasn't just stopping by. They had a problem that they were sure only Jack could fix. So one morning, just as we were finishing breakfast, Jack disappeared in a flash of light."

"Well, at least his timing has definitely improved in the last few years. You gotta be grateful for that." Jack said with a wicked grin that left no one in doubt as to the alien had interrupted before 'his timing' had better.

Though Sam was blushing slightly at Jack's comment and at the look on his face, she nevertheless sarcastically replied, "Oh, yes. I'm infinitely grateful that they now scan us to see what we're doing before they beam you up. That is _so_ much better; they're really respecting our privacy now."

"It's not like they can phone us before they dropped by, after all. And it's better than nothing and certainly better than the alternative." Jack argued reasonably in his buddy's defense.

Sam just frowned at him before resuming the tale, "be that as it may, the fact of the matter was that they came and took Jack for a mission only he could accomplish. And they didn't even bother to let me know beforehand. They beamed him up and I didn't find out what was going on until almost an hour later." Now she was really glaring at Jack; she had been frantic calling the SGC to see if they knew anything or at least could get in touch with the Asgard all the while praying nothing bad was happening.

Jack had the grace to look sheepish. The reason it had taken so long to inform Sam what was going on was that he had gotten so caught up in hearing the problem and finding a solution that he'd forgotten to ask Thor to let Sam know everything was fine. And then he thought it best to wait until they were some distance away from Earth before contacting her, that way she couldn't havestop him from going. Because the truth of the matter was that as nice as fishing was, Jack couldn't resist the allure of an adventure; especially when they told him that he had to take it easy. But he didn't think Sam would understand or approve so he'd let her believe that the delay in communication was Thor's fault; something his buddy had _not_ appreciated, the little guy knew how Sam could get and did not want to be on her bad side.

Sam saw the face on Jack's face and smiled inwardly in satisfaction. He should feel guilty after all. "And when I was finally contacted they were already on their way. There was nothing I could do. I mean I couldn't very well ask for a ship to go after a wayward General. So I could only sit around that cabin and wait and pray that he wouldn't get himself killed."

"Oh, come on Sam. You know Thor would never let anything happen to me," complained Jack.

"Why? Because he likes you so much?" Daniel needled Jack.

"Well, yeah _and_ because he knows what Sam'll do to him if he does."

"Yeah, there is that." Daniel nodded his head agreeing with Jack, and not only to tease Sam. They all knew that Sam was extremely protective of Jack, as protective as Jack was of Sam. A fair and balanced state of affairs as far as Daniel was concerned.

As was her custom, Sam ignored the by-play between Jack and Daniel and continued, "Fortunately, the problem wasn't a serious one and Jack was back in a couple of days."

"Just like I told you I would be."

Barely sparing him a glance, Sam said, "by the time he came back, I had decided that there was no place on Earth we could go to and really get away from the realities of our jobs. And if Jack was really ever to have the time off he needed, drastic action was called for."

"You decided to go off-world for your vacation?" asked Elizabeth as the story finally started making some sense.

"Yes, I figured if we went off-world the chances of being call back into work because of an emergency would be drastically reduced."

"That makes sense," agreed John, but there was still something off, "but why didn't you just gate to another planet within the Milky Way?"

"I thought about that," confirmed Sam, "but the truth of the matter is that if we had stayed within our network of Stargates, we could have still been called back at any time. We would have had to tell the SGC where we were going and they would have sent us off with all sort of communication equipment. It's not prudent to go off-world without communications but I wanted us to be as isolated as possible. It was the only way I could think of to get Jack to really relax."

Elizabeth nodded as she saw the logic in Sam's thinking, "What made you think of Atlantis, though?"

"I'm not really sure. I was just thinking of all our adventures over the years and somewhere in there I remember Atlantis. Once I thought of it I knew it would be perfect. While we can go home using the Stargate from here, we still don't have a ZPM on Earth. That means that the only way they have to communicate with us is when the Daedalus gets back. Until then we are basically incommunicado from Earth."

"But Atlantis is not exactly the best place for a relaxing vacation, Sam. We still have the wraith to deal with." Elizabeth said gently, not wanting to appear as if she was questing the woman's thinking even if that was what she was doing.

"We know. But you haven't had an attack on the city in years, right?" Sam didn't get offended at Elizabeth's implied criticism. After all the middle of a war wasn't a relaxing place to be.

"No, we haven't really had an attack on the city for about three years now." Elizabeth conceded.

"And about two months ago, Rodney figured out how the city had been submerged by the Ancients and you're now capable of submerging it again if it looks like the wraiths will be attacking, correct?"

"Yes, we actually submerged it for a few days last month." Rodney answered and then went on to explain in more detail what had occurred. "Everything went according to plan. It was fascinating, really, how well the system still works after ten thousand years. Though that shouldn't be surprising really, given how well the city has fared. You should take a look at it; it's totally ingenious; I don't know how they thought about . . ."

"Rodney," Elizabeth interrupted before he started explaining in detail how the city worked, "maybe you could fill Sam on that later, uhm?"

Rodney stopped in mid-sentence and turned to looked at Elizabeth. He seemed to be about to say something else, but nodded instead, "of course."

"I guess I can see why you though Atlantis was the best place for the General to relax." Elizabeth had to admit that Sam had seemed to have thought it all through.

Sam nodded, "as long as he doesn't go in any missions," and her look said he'd be lucky if he even left the city for a quiet excursion, "there shouldn't be any problems. And since there is still quite of the city left to be explored, he can amuse himself doing that." Sam knew that the best way to keep Jack out of trouble was to keep him busy and amused. The problem had been to find something that could accomplish that and be stress-free, or as stress-free as possible. This little stay in Atlantis seemed to fit the ticket. Ancient gadgets seemed to be one of the few that Jack like; probably because he can work them while most of everyone else can't.

"She never wants me to have any fun," said Jack in a mournful tone shaking his head.

"Ok, I can understand why you and the General are here," say Rodney in his typicaly blunt way, "but why are they?" pointing to the rest of SG1

"Well," answered Sam, "we couldn't very well come to Atlantis and not bring Daniel."

"He would never have forgiven us," agreed Jack.

"No, I wouldn't," asserted Daniel. "Bad enough that I miss two, that's two chances to come to Atlantis. I wouldn't have _let_ you _leave_ without me; it wouldn't have happened." Daniel insisted, shaking his head for emphasis.

"We know, spacemonkey, we know," Jack said soothingly, "and we would have never dreamed of coming without you. It wouldn't have been the same."

Daniel nodded his head mollified and reassured that his friends wouldn't have let him behind and denied him his chance to see his dream.

"And since SG1 was on downtime, we thought it'd be only fair that Teal'c and Cameron came along as well," Jack went on to explain the reason for the bringing them along. "Danny boy was coming along anyway, so we figured we'd make it a family vacation."

"Well, let me reiterate: we're glad to see you all here. Once again welcome to Atlantis" Elizabeth said once again.

"Thank you and don't worry," Sam added, "we won't be on your way. Nor will we be idle. We'll be available to help you in any way you we can. I'm sure Daniel here, is dying to get a look at things," she nodded to Daniel, who indeed looked he was about to leap out of his chair and go explore the city, "I'll be more than happy to help you with the technology, I know you are still having some problems with it,"

Jack snorted, "Huh, like you aren't chopping at the bit to get your hands on those doohickeys just like Danny boy here."

Sam went on as if he hadn't spoken, not that Jack expected anything different. "And Cameron and Teal'c will be happy to assist you in anything else you need. Even if it is just the use of their brute strength," she finished with a smile.

Teal'c inclined his head and agreed, "Indeed, I would most happy to help you in any way I can. Perhaps I could give some self-defense classes while we remain in the city?" he suggested.

"Thank you for the offer, Teal'c. I'm sure there wouldn't be any lack of volunteers if you were to offer such a class." Elizabeth responded to Teal'c's offer.

"No, there wouldn't," John agreed, "I know _I_ would definitely signed up for it. A self-defense class is always a good thing; and I bet you know some moves that most of us don't."

"That is correct, Coloner Sheppard."

"Well, I would love to learn them. I'm sure that the Wraiths haven't seen them before and they can only help if we were to engage in a hand to hand with them."

Teal'c just inclined his head in agreement.

"We'll appreciate any help you want to give us," said Elizabeth and catching Sam's eye, she added "but please don't feel obligated to help. This is your vacation after all, don't hesitate to just relax and have fun."

Sam nodded her agreement but Jack once again snorted and said, "trust me, Elizabeth, this bunch doesn't _know_ how to relax; they think working is fun," in a conspiratorial tone of voice while shaking his head as if saddened by that fact.

"I guess you'll just have to show us, then, won't you?" Sam asked. She was going to get Jack to relax even if she had to sit next to him while he 'fished' the entire time they where there. Or maybe she'd just keep him in bed the majority of the time, the wicked thought popped into her head suddenly.

"I've been _trying_ for the past dozen or so years, Carter," Jack objected, completely oblivious to the naughty turn his wife's mind had taken – for such a brilliant mind, Sam's could turn quite naughty. "But I guess I can try one more time." He added in a suffering tone.

"Now that that's settled," Elizabeth said, bringing her hands to the table and pushing back from it to stand up, before they could get started in one of the bickering arguments they all seemed to enjoy so much, "You've had a long journey and I'm sure you're more than ready to settle down and relax for a bit. I'm afraid, however, that since we didn't know you were coming, we have nothing ready. It may take a while to find and prepare suitable quarters. But, you could rest on any of our quarters if you wish."

"No thank you," answered Daniel, "that's kind of you. But the trip here was very smooth and we are not at all tire; we would much rather start exploring," Daniel answered for everyone, though it was a safe guess as the trip had been so smooth it had been boring. "And don't worry about our quarters, something private and with a bed would suffice; believe me, we've stayed in some pretty nasty places. How bad can a room in Atlantis be?"

Elizabeth smiled and said, "Oh, I'm sure we can do better than that, it'd just take a bit that's all," and then she turned and looked at Teyla, who over the last three years, had become Elizabeth's right hand person when it came to dealing with the day to day running of Atlantis.

While Elizabeth had been more than qualified to lead the exploration of Atlantis, she hadn't really been prepared to lead a growing a city. Teyla, on the other hand, had had years of experience leading her people and her help had been invaluable. Gradually, Elizabeth had come to rely on Teyla more and more, until Teyla was the de facto leader of the city. A fact that was fine with Elizabeth since it gave her more time to devote to the scientific exploration of the city, the off-world missions and even gave her time to have a personal life – something that had been almost impossible before Teyla started helping her. But the best part as far as Elizabeth was concerned was that she had someone to talk to, someone who knew what she was going through and with whom she could share her insecurities and doubts – that was a gift beyond measure to Elizabeth.

Teyla saw Elizabeth's look and correctly interpreted, "It won't much of a wait, Elizabeth. The rooms the Ilechans representatives used are still set up. Remember, we'd thought it'd be a good idea to have some rooms ready for visiting VIPs," she said the last word with a look at John to see if she got the word right, John nodded and smiled. "It'd be just a matter of a quick clean up, it shouldn't take long at all. I'll go and set it up." And with a smile and nod she left.

Teyla had been doing such a good job that everyone had accepted her authority, even Bates. (Everyone but Kavanagh, but no one listened to him). It was evident to all that she really enjoyed her duties. The fact was that while she was still the leader of her people and their Ambassador, they were flourishing on the mainland and since she no longer lived with them she wasn't as involved as involved in the running of their settlement as before. She had been saddened when she first realizedthat factbut had then decided to put her energies into helping her new home. Being a member of AG1 was wonderful but it had left her with too much time on her hands when not on missions. So helping Elizabeth run the city had been as much for her as for Elizabeth.

If any of the visitors thought it strange that the only non-member of the expedition was the one getting their rooms ready,no onesaid anything about it. The Atlantis crew had been on Atlantis for over four years and in that time they had gone through some incredible experiences, both good and bad; SG1 knew better than anyone the tight bond that develops from having lived together through such times. They knew that there were many things that never made into their reports for Earth; that they had become such a tight community that what happened on Atlantis stayed on Atlantis if it didn't directly affect Earth.And they knew that thatwas only natural.

"Well, would you like to begin the tour or wait and go to your quarters first?" Elizabeth asked as Teyla left.

After looking at Daniel, Jack answered, "Oh, we better begin with the tour if we don't want Danny boy here to throw a tantrum."

"Jaaack! I don't throw tantrums," Daniel protested in a voice remarkably like that of a five year old.

"Yeah, whatever Space monkey," Jack said with a smirk. "So, shall we?" He asked Elizabeth as he pushed his chair back and stood up.

"Sure,"

"Elizabeth, do you think we could begin with the control room?" Daniel asked as he rushed to Elizabeth's side. "I saw somethings that looked very interesting and would like a better look at them."

"I don't see why not." Elizabeth told him with a smile. "If you'd follow me this way?" She told them and turned to leave the room.

And with that everyone stood up to begin the tour of Atlantis.


	4. Chaos in Atlantis

SG1 in Atlantis

**AN**: ok, this is a future fic, only three years but still in the future. As any of you who have read any of my fics know, I'm a shipper. So, here I'm making a couple of assumption that should really come as no surprise to anyone that has read my other fic: Sam and Jack are together and so are Teyla and John. Ok, that's it for author's note.

**Disclaimer**: they don't belong to me, though I really wish they did. Neither does the whole concept of Atlantis or a city control mentally, I'm just playing with it.

Chapter 4 - Chaos in Atlantis

**AN2: **Sorry for the long delay in updating but I was working on some of my other stories. Hope you like this new chapter and please review so I know that you like it. Enjoy!

As the rest of the team followed Elizabeth, Sam stood next to Jack and putting her hand on his arms asked him, "Jack, are you ok?"

Jack was looking around and answered her with a distracted, "Umm?"

"Jack, are you feeling ok?" Sam insisted.

This time Jack looked down at her and answered, "Yes, Sam, I'm fine."

But Sam wasn't really convinced and asked again, "Are you sure? You seemed, I don't know, distracted." At seeing his amused look, she added, "more distracted than usual that is."

With a soft smile, Jack leaned down to kiss her and reassured her, "Yes, honey, I'm fine. There's no need to worry." But seeing her disbelieving face, he went on, "I'm just taking in all of this," he said with a wave of his hand, "it is pretty spectacular, don't you think?"

Sam took a look around and had to agree with Jack, "Yes, it is pretty spectacular." But Sam had not really gotten over the fright of hearing that he'd collapsed and just had to asked one more time, "are you _sure_ you're ok?"

Jack just shook his head, he knew where she was coming from and that she only nagged him so much because she loved him and was concerned about him – but it was really starting to get old, not to mention annoying. If he didn't love her so much and wasn't completely sure that he would be acting in the same way were their places reversed, he would have already told her to stop nagging him – and not in very nice terms; but he did love her and understood her, so he just answered again, "Yes, Sam, I am _sure_ that I'm fine. Now, should we follow the others?"

Sam wasn't sure she believed him but she also knew that he was starting to get annoyed with her endless question, so she agreed, "Sure, let's go." And looking at the others ahead of them, she couldn't help adding, "It sure looks like Daniel is on heaven."

Jack smirked and had to agreed with her assessment, "Oh, yeah. I'd say that Daniel is definitely on his heaven. I think we may have a hard time getting him out of here when it's time to go home." And looking at the excited archeologist, he added, "a _very_ hard time."

Sam was also looking at their best friend going on about something or other and could only agree, "Yeah, you're right. I'm not sure how we're going to pried him away from here. Maybe we shouldn't have brought him along?"

Jack immediately shook his head, "No, we couldn't have done that. He would have never forgiven us if we had left him back home."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just not looking forward to all the pleading and whining we're going to hear. Because he _is_ going to plead and whine to for us to stay longer or for us to just leave him here for a while longer, you know that right?"

"Oh, yeah, I know." Jack agreed with a sigh, he was sure that they were all in for some serious whining – maybe the worst they've ever heard, after all it's not everyday that Daniel gets to study the city of the Ancients.

"But we're not leaving him here, right?" Sam was suddenly worried; she knew how annoying Daniel could get and that he only did that so that Jack would get tired of listening to him and give him whatever he wanted. And though Jack knew that that was what Daniel was doing, the tactic still worked a surprising number of times – a testament of just how annoying Daniel could get. And while Sam was usually happy when Daniel got whathewanted, and had actually helped him a few times, this time Sam did not want him to win and stay here for an undetermined time. Not only would she missed him terribly - with Jack in DC for big chunks of time, Sam had come to depend on Daniel's friendship for companionship and support – but Sam was also not comfortable leaving Daniel alone in another galaxy, especially one that still had the Wraiths running around. They may not have come to Atlantis again, but they were still very much a threat off-world and Sam knew Daniel well enough to know he'd want to go explore off-world and without anyone from SG1 there to watch his six, God knew what sort of trouble he would get into.

"Don't worry, Sam. There's no way in hell I would ever leave Danny boy here by himself – no matter how annoying he gets with his whining."

See, Jack knew that it was all a tactic on Daniel's part; whoever said Jack wasn't smart, really didn't know him. Sam sighed in relief and said, "Good, but that leaves us with all that whining to look forward to."

"Yeah," Jack agreed with a sigh of his own, he really wasn't looking forward to a Daniel tantrum, God knew they got on his nerves like nothing else (when they weren't amusing him, that was). But Jack had an ace up his sleeve, he was after all a master tactician, "Well, let's just hope that she'd be able to convince him to come back without much fuss."

Sam looked at him with surprise for a little bit and then said with the air of someone who had just understood something, "That was why you suggested she came along!"

Jack looked at her with his patented innocent expression and said, "don't know what you're talking about, Sam. I just thought he would miss her and would be happy if she came along, that's all."

"Yeah, right." Sam snorted, "You didn't suggest that Ishta came along, and you know Teal'c will miss her and be happier if she were here." Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, well. Unlike Danny boy, Teal'c and Ishta are warriors and are accustomed to being separated and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't leave her sisters to come on a vacation with us, anyway."

"Yeah, likely story," Sam said with another snort, but was prevented from saying anything further as they had finally caught up with the rest of the group. They finally entered the control room a few moments later only to find it in a frenzy.

Elizabeth was demanding asking questions and Rodney was hunched over the computers. Sam hurried over to him just as the technician was finishing his explanation, ". . . and it all suddenly went haywire, Dr. Weir." He finished with a perplexing frown, looking at his instruments.

Jack, who really couldn't help himself – he had been a general for over 4 years now and a commanding officer for far longer than that, after all – stepped up and barked, "Define 'haywire'," he almost added airman, but stopped as he noticed that the man was wearing what appeared to be a scientist uniform and not a soldier's one.

Whether he was military or not, didn't really matter, the technician had come to Atlantis with the first expedition and was used to taking orders from Colonel Sheppard and other assorted military personnel; he automatically straightened and answered, "all of the ancient technology, all over Atlantis, just turn itself on, sir." He knew who Jack (had heard all the stories) was and had been living with military guys too long not to show the proper respect. "Stuff we hadn't been able to figure out, just suddenly came on. And even stuff that had gotten to work is suddenly out of our control."

"Do we know who's doing it?" Elizabeth asked with a worried frown, she didn't like the idea that they no longer had control over Atlantis. She looked at Jack to see if he wanted to add something but found that the General seemed lost in thought; anyone else would have bristled at the way he had seemed to take over, but Elizabeth knew that it was not personal and besides, the man was technically her boss.

"No, ma'am. We're looking into that right now. But . . ." the technician trailed off with a shrug as he studied the read out on his monitor.

Elizabeth turned to the one man who knew Atlantis better than anyone, "Rodney? Any ideas?"

"Not yet, Elizabeth. I haven't seen anything like this before, I don't know . . ." he too, trailed off frustrated at not knowing what was going on with his city. Sam was looking over his shoulders, seeing if there was something she could do. But really, McKay was the expert on Atlantis, all she could do was observed and offered some suggestion – not something she usually did in a crisis and which was irritating her.

And all of the sudden the light went off and came on a few seconds later. Just as the lights came on the stargate started spinning and the force field flickered on.

"Ok, someone find out what's going on, NOW!" Elizabeth said in a fair bark of her own; it was one thing for the machines in the city to start acting up – they could deal with that, might be frustrating and perplexing but they could deal with it. It was another thing entirely for the gate and, more importantly, the force field to start going nuts. They needed control of both those things, especially the force field – it was their best defense from hostiles coming through the gate.

While the scientists furiously went through diagnostic after diagnostic, Daniel looked around; he was no scientist and would only get in the way if he tried to help them. As he walked around the control room, keeping out of everyone's way, he saw that Jack was standing quietly to one side ostensibly lost in thoughts. As he came closer, Daniel noticed the look on Jack's face; it wasn't his usual confused 'I don't know what's going on' face, in fact it wasn't like any of the faces that Jack usually makes (and the man sure got a ton of faces he likes to make) and yet it was somehow familiar to Daniel. It took only a few moments for Daniel to remember exactly where and when he'd seen Jack wear that face. Given where they were it made sense and it certainly explained everything that was going on.

"Jack?" Daniel said, trying to get his attention. Jack looked like he was staring at the 'Gate but Daniel knew he was lost inside his own mind. "Jack," Daniel repeated, this time also touching his arms and shaking it a little.

Jack's only response was a distracted, "um?"

"Jack," Daniel insisted in a firmer and somewhat louder voice, "you're the one doing this, aren't you?"

Sam noticed Daniel trying to get Jack's attention. It didn't matter that she was some distance from them, she was always aware of what went on around Jack; it had been that way from the beginning, had only gotten more acute since they've been together and not that Jack was 'sick' there was nothing that escaped Sam's attention. "Daniel, what's going on?" She asked as she came to stand next to him.

Of course, once Sam moved towards them it was only a matter of seconds before Teal'c and Cameron came to see what was going on. There were SG1, after all, and when something happened to one of them, they all got involved.

"Is something the matter, Colonel O'Neill?" Even after two years, Daniel still found it odd that hear Teal'c call Sam Colonel O'Neill; he would think that Teal'c was talking to Jack if it wasn't for the fact that Jack was now a General and Teal'c had never called him anything but simply 'O'Neill'.

"I'm not sure, Teal'c" Sam answered, "That's what I just asked Daniel."

"Look at Jack's face, guys," Daniel ordered, "Doesn't it remind you of anything?"

All three of them, plus Cameron, turned to look at Jack's face; but apparently the others didn't see whatever Daniel had seen. "What are we looking for, Daniel Jackson?" Asked Teal'c.

"Yeah, Daniel, I don't see anything unusual." Sam added, but Jack's unnatural stillness was beginning to concern her so he touched his arm and said, "Jack. Jack, can you hear me?"

But all she got from Jack was a distracted, "Um?"

And that was when Sam got it. She turned to look at Daniel with a look of surprise on her face.

"You see it too, don't you?" Asked Daniel.

"Yeah, but how is it possible?"

"I'm not sure; maybe he still has some residue leftover from the last time."

It took Teal'c longer than Sam, but he finally understood what Daniel meant. His eyebrow went sky high and his face took the most surprised look he had ever worn as he asked, "Wouldn't O'Neill had said something?"

Daniel just snorted and answered, "This is Jack we're talking about. Do you really think he would have volunteered that information of his own initiative?"

Teal'c inclined his head, acknowledging the truth of that statement. But Sam added in a disgruntled voice, "You'd think he would have told his wife, though."

Cameron just looked from one to the other, completely in the dark as to what they were talking about. Something that, unfortunately, was nothing new; Cameron had often been confused when the other three would go on about some earlier mission or incident. The number of times that happen had, however, gone down as the years went by – something that Cameron really appreciated as he hated being out of the loop. "Guys, care to let me in whatever's going on?"

It was Teal'c who answered him, as Sam was still trying to get Jack to answer her, "We think that it is O'Neill that is the cause of all the commotion."

"General O'Neill?" Cameron asked, surprised.

"Yes," Teal'c answered.

"But why would they think that?" Cameron was really confused and then it dawned on him, "because he has the ancient gene; but don't a few members of the Atlantis crew have it also, including Col. Sheppard?" At Teal'c's nod, he continued, "then why would the General be any different?" But, once again, he answered his own question, "Because he received the ancient download, twice. But didn't Thor retrieve it both times?"

Before Teal'c could answer, Jack came back from wherever he'd been, "Sam, you'd said something?"

"Yes," she answered exasperated, "are you responsible for all this?" but she didn't give him time to answer her and went on "Thor didn't remove all of the Ancient's knowledge, did he?" The look on his face was answer enough and Sam saw red. "I don't believe you, Jack O'Neill!" She exploded; throwing her arms in the air and pacing a few feet away and then came back. "How could you lie to me?"

"I didn't lie to you, not exactly." Jack tried to defend himself, though he knew he didn't have a leg to stand on. "You never asked me if all the knowledge was gone. I just simply didn't tell you." He finished weakly as the storm in Sam's eyes seemed to grow.

"I never asked you? You simply didn't tell me? Tell me Jack, am I your wife or not? Aren't we supposed to share everything? I thought that was what being married meant. But maybe it means something different to you." Sam fumed at him but in a low voice, they had already attracted attention and she didn't want all of the Atlantis crew to witness this fight.

"Come on, Sam, you know it means the same to me. But this happened before we got married, before we even got together. Wait," he help up his hand to stop what would be another rant and hastily added, "I know that I should have told you when we got together and I thought about it many times, believe me."

"Then why didn't you?" She asked as he paused to draw a breath.

"Because by then it seemed irrelevant but I knew you would worry anyway and I didn't want you to worry." He paused and looked at Daniel and Teal'c and added, "That's also the reason why I didn't say anything when it happened. I knew you guys would freak and would be after me all the time to make sure I didn't lose it. And while I appreciate the fact that you guys care so much for me, that much scrutiny would have driven bonkers in a very short period of time and you guys know it. Besides which there really was nothing you guys could do – except worry. Thor assured me that the knowledge would not interfere with my living a normal life; and he was right."

"But Jack," Daniel protested, "you could have helped us so much. I mean you have the knowledge of the Ancients, which would have made most of the battles we've fought so much easier. I don't understand why you didn't use it and help."

"Because I couldn't, Danny" Jack replied with a sigh and a shake of his head. "Don't you think I wanted to help? And if I could have I would but I couldn't. Yeah, Thor didn't remove the knowledge, but he did compress it and isolated it in my brain. It was the only way he knew to stop it from taking over all my brain functions. I had no access to it, Danny, not at all. Sure, every once in a while a random piece of knowledge would float up and I'd find myself thinking and knowing the oddest things but that was it; I had no control over it, at all."

Sam, who had taken a few deep breaths and had thought about it some, had calmed down. She could see why he had not say anything, the truth was that she would have freaked and she, Daniel and Teal'c would have been after him all the time – and that really would have driven him bonkers. Now that she was calm and able to think again, she caught something, "But if all the knowledge if repressed, how are you doing all of this? Because it is you that it's doing it, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. And I don't know how, exactly. All I know is that ever since we beamed down I've felt something. Almost like a buzzing in my brain that kept getting louder and all of the sudden I could _see_ and _feel_ the city, in here," and he tapped his head. "I don't know how, really. But as I felt it, I suddenly knew how to make different things happen. At first I'm pretty sure it was accidental; I wasn't really sure anything was going on until we came to the Control Room." He finished with a shrug and looked at his family to see if they had the answers, as they've always had.

"That doesn't make much sense. If you can't control the knowledge then it must be your gene that it's activating all these things, but if that is the case then why haven't any of the expeditions members that have the gene been able to do it before?" Daniel asked.

"I don't know. Maybe because Jack's gene is so much more pronounced?" Sam speculated.

"Maybe," Said Daniel doubtfully.

Suddenly Jack's head lifted and he turned to look straight at John and at the same moment John turned and looked at Jack. John had also been distracted but in all the uproar, no one had really noticed. And now, John and Jack looked at each other with the same intensity across the room and despite all the upheaval that continued around them – the discussion that the members of SG1 (current and former) had been having had been quiet enough that it had been missed by everyone else, to the great relief of the those involved. As they looked at each other, Jack asked John, "You feel it too, don't you?"

Despite the distance between them and the noise around them, John somehow heard Jack and answered him in a somewhat bewildered tone of voice, "Yeah, I do."

Teyla, who had just come back from arranging the rooms for their unexpected visitors, caught the look between John and the General and she heard John's response to a question she had not heard. "You do what? John, is everything ok?" The others in the room may not have noticed John's distraction but like Sam, Teyla was very much in tune with her mate and had known that something was going on with him from the moment she'd come back.

Elizabeth, who was closer to Teyla than to John, heard Teyla's question and turned to look at John and noticed for the first time the look he was sharing with Jack. "John, what's going on?"

By this time Jack had come closer to them and asked John, "How you always felt it?"

"Felt what?" asked Elizabeth what was ignored by both men.

John took a couple of seconds and then answered tentatively, "Yeah, I think I have."

"You _think_ you have? How can you not know?" Jack asked a bit exasperated.

He wasn't the only one; both Teyla and Elizabeth were tired of being ignored and decided to do something about. "General! Would you please tell me what you're talking about?" Elizabeth asked Jack at the same time Teyla asked John, "Would you _please_ tell what's going on!"

The two men were apparently still in their own little world, so it was Sam who answered, "We think that Jack is the one responsible for everything that is going on around here."

"The General! By how?"

"We're not sure yet. We know it has to do with his Ancient gene but it could also have something to do with two Ancient downloads that he'd received." Sam explained.

"But what are they feeling?"

"The City; we're feeling the city," this time it was Jack that answered. "But I'd like to know how is it that Sheppard is not sure whether he'd felt it before."

"The City? What does that mean?" Elizabeth asked but was once again ignored as John answered Jack.

"Well, sir, I'm not sure . . ."

"But how, I mean it's so loud, how could you miss it?" Jack seemed puzzled.

"Because it was never that loud." John tried to explain.

"Wait, let's take it from the beginning." Sam, ever the methodical scientist, said. "When was the first the time you felt it?"

John thought about it for a few moments and then said, "As soon as I came through the 'Gate. It was like a buzzing or a niggling sensation in the back of my brain but very subtle not like now." John shook his head as he tried to remember what had happened that night so long ago. "Everything was so crazy; within a half an hour of getting here the shield was collapsing and we were forced to go off-world looking for a zpm. I didn't have any time to really pay attention or try and investigate what it was I felt and by the time everything settled down I guess I had gotten used to it and didn't really noticed it."

"But thinking back now, can you tell if it had always been there?" Sam asked.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure it was always there. But like I said it was pretty subtle, nothing like what it is right now." John answered.

"When did you start feeling the sensation grow stronger?" Daniel asked.

By this time everyone in the Control Room had stopped whatever they were doing and were listening to conversation.

"Uhm," Said John thinking about it, "I guess I would say shortly after the General beamed down."

Elizabeth turned to Rodney and asked him, "Rodney, are you feeling or have you ever felt anything like what the General and John are describing?"

Rodney stood silent for a moment concentrating on a place deep in his own mind and then answered her, "Yes, but it's very faint, like a noise that is just at the edge of your hearing range." He didn't sound all too thrilled at not being able to hear what the other two did.

"Have you ever felt it before?" Sam asked him to clarify.

"No," he shook his head. "I've never felt anything like this; even now I wouldn't have felt it if I hadn't concentrate and knew that it was there."

"But why does he feel it at all? I thought he didn't have the gene?" Asked a confused Daniel, who still remembered the fuss Rodney had made and all the tests he had demanded to take when it was discovered that he didn't have the gene back in Antarctica.

"He underwent the gene therapy that Dr. Beckett developed our first year here, so that he could work with the technology." Elizabeth explained.

"Oh, that's right. I remember reading something about it now." Daniel replied. "But then, shouldn't he be feeling the same as Jack and John?"

"Yes, theoretically he should," Sam answered.

"Not really," answered Rodney at the same time and everyone turned to look at him.

"What do you mean by that, Rodney?" Elizabeth asked.

"It's just something that I've been thinking about for a while now." Rodney started to explain as he left his monitors and came closer to the rest of the group. "No matter how much I practiced at controlling the technology I just never got as good as John. Now, at first I just thought that he had a higher concentration and I a lower – the same difference between him and Carson, who also had trouble controlling the technology. But as time passed, I noticed that Carson got better and better at it, not as good as John but better than he had been, while I maintained the same level of control – I never got better or worse, just stayed the same.So the only explanation was that artificial implantation of the gene is weaker than the natural one and thus the bond between the mind and the technology is also weaker. It's only logical to assume that the weaker the bond the less this feeling would be felt."

"It makes sense," Sam agreed.

"Yes, of course it does," Rodney said in a tone of voice that implied it couldn't be any other way since he thought of it.

"But Rodney, why haven't you ever say anything about this before now?" Asked Elizabeth.

"I meant to but there always seemed to be one thing or another that needed my urgent attention and since this wasn't a vital problem, it just skipped my mind." Rodney answered her shrugging his shoulders.

"Ok," said Jack, like always wanting to get to the bottom line. "We know that everyone with the gene can feel the city but that the 'connection' is stronger for those that were born with the gene rather than those that had itimplanted. But how does that help us in figuring out what is going on with the city and why did it start when I beamed down?"

"Well, I'm not really sure why it started when you beamed down but I'm pretty sure I know what is going on with the city." Rodney announced.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense here, Rodney," John demanded of the scientist making a 'hurry it up' motion with his hands.

"It's simple really; Atlantis has woken up."

At that everyone fell silent.

**AN3:** Ok, I know that they are going to make Atlantis come to its full potential this season or at least start to make it come to its potential (that's what the spoilers say anyway) but I'm going to ignore that and assume the city won't come alive until Jack gets there. I actually have an explanation for it – or the beginnings of one anyway. Well, I hope you guys like this new chapter; please, please, please review it and let me know what you think, so I'd know if I'm on the right track or should change paths.


	5. Information Mentalnetwork

SG1 in Atlantis

**Disclaimer**: they don't belong to me, though I really wish they did. Neither does the whole concept of Atlantis or a city control mentally, I'm just playing with it.

**AN**: ok, this is a future fic, only three years but still in the future. As any of you who have read any of my fics know, I'm a shipper. So, here I'm making a couple of assumption that should really come as no surprise to anyone that has read my other fic: Sam and Jack are together and so are Tayla and John. Ok, that's it for author's note.

**AN2: ** I'm sorry for having taken so long in updating, but I was working on 'Te Amare', which is a sort of a prequel to this one and I just felt the need to get that one further along. Also, and here I'm going to be asking for your help, I started writing this fic because I wanted to read a good crossover between SG1 and Atlantis and I just couldn't find many - so I decided to do myself. Unfortunately, I didn't really plan for what would happen after SG1 got there and Jack started making everything go haywire. So, please let me know what you guys would like to see: what kind of action, what kind of Atlantis secret to be uncovered, and anything else. Thank you!

Chapter 5 (Information Mentalnetwork)

After a few minutes of silence, Jack asked what was on everyone's mind, "Atlantis's woken up? Leaving aside the fact that I find really disturbing that a city can 'wake up'; I thought it had awoken when you guys arrived and it arose from the sea?"

"Yes, well," Rodney answered as he leaned against a table, crossed his feet in front of him and his arms across his chest and prepared to go into lecture mode – Jack knew this because though Daniel's and Sam's postures were different, the look in their eyes were identical to Rodney's whenever they're about to embark on a lecture. "It is true that we'd had theorize that Atlantis had awoken when we first got here. However, the fact that the city has over the past two years slowly shown us its secrets has led me to believe that we were in fact, well, wrong." He said obviously reluctant to admit any such thing.

John, despite the gravity of the situation couldn't let that one go and said, "Really, Rodney? You were wrong? I didn't think it was possible for the great Dr. McKay to be wrong."

"Yes, well. We all have our days off," Rodney said with a tight lip smile in John's direction. Just because the man happened to be his best friend didn't mean that they had stopped teasing each other. If anything, it seemed that the closer they get the more they teased each other. "I know you have to know that since most of your days are off."

"Touche, McKay." John said with a grin and opened his mouth to continue with the banter but Elizabeth stopped them.

"Guys, I know how much you like your bickering but we have more important matters to deal with right now. You think you could postpone this session until later?"

Sam had to half-turned her head to hide her smile. Elizabeth's comment had been calm and matter of fact, if a little sarcastic. This told Sam that that scene was nothing new in the Atlantis team and she couldn't help but be reminded of all the bickering session she'd had to put a stop to between Jack and Daniel. Looking at the amused faces of her team and husband, she's sure that they have also noticed the same similarity.

"Ok," Rodney said as he cleared his throat. "Right. Well, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Rodney couldn't help one more dig at John, and John acknowledged it by a small smile and tilt of his head. The look on Elizabeth's face, however, was enough for Rodney to leave it there and continue with his explanations. "Um, yes. The term 'awake' is not wrong per say. It's just that it is not entirely accurate, either."

"McKay, you think you could possibly hurry this up? We've had a long trip and would like to go to our quarters." Jack said impatiently, he's never really like McKay that much. And even if he had, the only scientist that Jack would even considered letting go on and on without hurrying was Sam – and that was something that didn't really happened all that often.

"Right, General. The thing is that there are different levels of awareness. When you go to sleep, you usually feel yourself 'descend' through the different levels as you get closer and closer to actually losing consciousness and being really asleep – hence the name 'falling asleep. And when you are waking up you can sometimes feel yourself coming up. Now, it doesn't happen as often as when you fall asleep, but occasionally you can feel as you passed through the different layers. And sometimes you can actually sense what goes on around you even though you're not fully awake." He looked around the group to see if they were getting what he was saying and judging by the all the nods he was getting, he figured he was.

"So," Daniel said before Rodney could continued, "what you're saying is that you guys, what? arose Atlantis when you came through the first time but didn't really jolted her awake. And in all this time, the city has slowly been waking up and for some reason when Jack beamed down the process was somehow expedited and it is only now that the city is fully awake? And that is why all of these," he said waving his arms to encompassed all the chaos around the control room, "things are happening?"

Rodney took a minute to think all that through and then said in a voice that let his friends know that he had not appreciated Daniel's summary of his theory, "yes, that's about it."

At the other scientist's confirmation, all of male members of SG1 and Jack turned to look at Sam with expressions that clearly said: 'is that possible?' Sam noticed this and said, "What? McKay's the expert here if he says it's possible, then I guess it is." If the look on their faces was any indication, none of the four guys liked that answer and if the look on Rodney's face was any indication he did not like the fact the other four had felt the need to ask Sam to corroborate his theory. As she said, _he_ was the expert here. But to his chagrin, she continued, "Though for what I read of his reports, what he's saying does sort of make sense. And it would explain everything that's been going on." That answered was marginally more acceptable to her 'guys'. And just as Daniel opened his mouth to comment, Dr. Beckett came running into the control room.

"Dr. Weir, Rodney. You've got to see this! Atlantis is going insane!" Dr. Beckett came to halt in front of the group and paused for a few seconds to get his breath back and then tried to go on again, "Elizabeth, lass . . ."

"We know, Carson, we know. Equipment is acting up all over Atlantis," Elizabeth said interrupting him.

"No, I mean aye, that it is. But that is not all, lass. Something else is going on. I'm either going insane or I can all of a sudden feel Atlantis on my head!" It was clear by his expression that he was firmly leaning towards the crazy explanation. He just couldn't wrap his brain around the possibility that somehow the city has gotten into his brain.

"You're not going crazy, Carson," Elizabeth began to explain only to be interrupted herself by Rodney's not so low murmur.

"Not anymore than you already were, anyway," he said to John's quite snort and Elizabeth's exasperated, "Rodney!" "Sorry, Elizabeth, sorry," he apologized, putting his hand up in the sign of surrender, but when Elizabeth turned back to Carson, he turned his head towards John and the two shared a smirk. Teyla noticed the exchange and just shook her head; she was used to the two acting like children. Jack also noticed it and had to admit, at least to himself, that it seemed like Dr. McKay had changed some since he'd come to Atlantis; he didn't seem quite such a pompous, pain in the ass. Then he amended that thought, he was still a pompous, pain in the ass, but it seemed that now he had acquired some small measure of 'coolness' – must be his association with Sheppard.

"John and General O'Neill and I imagined any one else that was born with the Ancient gene, have also felt it, Carson. It's not only you." Elizabeth explained.

It was at that moment that Carson turned and for the first time noticed the half of the people around Elizabeth didn't live in Atlantis. "Oy, I'm sorry, General. I hadn't seen you. How are you?" He said as he extended his hand to Jack.

"Fine, doc. And yourself?" Jack answered with an easy grin. He had always liked the affable doctor.

"Fine, now that I know I'm not going insane," he answered with a laugh as he turned and greeted Sam. "Col, how are you?"

"I'm fine, doctor Beckett. And don't worry, if you were to go insane you would be in great company with all the 'crazy' people in the room." Sam said with a smile.

"I'm not sure how great the company would be, lass, but I know what you mean. And please, call me Carson." Carson offered.

"Then please call me Sam. Since you're here, do you think it'd be possible for me to see you for a while as soon as this settles down a bit?" Sam asked and Jack very quietly moaned, he knew what that visit would be all about and here he thought he'd get away from all the doctors for a while – he really should have known better.

Carson was a bit surprised but answered easily enough, "Of course, come by the infirmary whenever you have a few moments."

"Thank you, Carson."

"Dr. Jackson, a pleasure to see you again. I see you finally made it," Carson said shaking hands with Daniel.

"Yes, finally. It's good to see you again, Carson. And please call me Daniel." He then turned to Teal'c and Cameron and introduced them to Carson, who had not met them before. "Carson, these are Teal'c and Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell – the other two members of SG1."

"A pleasure. I hope you all had a nice trip." The greeting out of the way, Carson turned back to Elizabeth and asked for a further explanation. "Now, could you please explained what you meant when you said that the General and John are also 'feeling' the city, lass?"

"Well, there's really not that much I can say, Carson. Both the General and John say they can feel the city and can control it. Well, the General can, anyway." She then turned to John and asked, "Can you do it, too?"

John looked at her for a moment and said, "I don't know. Let me try." He then concentrated for a while and in seconds the 'Gate activated and a puddle jumper came from the ceiling.

"Ok, I'd say he can do it too," say Rodney, who couldn't help but feel a bit envious. John had always being able to control Ancient technology better than him, but it had usually been smaller stuff. To see him command such crucial controls so easily bugged him, but, surprisingly enough, not as much as it would have two years ago.

All of the sudden Jack turned to Carson and said, "I can feel you!"

Carson had the look of a deer in front of headlights for a few moments and then said in a somewhat shaky voice, "Aye, I can fell your presence too and John's." After a few moments of silence he added, "This is decidedly freaky."

John laughed and said, "Yes, but it is also kind of cool. Hey, look at that. I didn't know that was there."

"Wow, that's impressive. How do we get there?" Asked Jack.

"Oh, my God. Would you look at that? I would be able to do so much with that." Carson said as he shook his head in amazement at whatever it was that he had found.

The three of them were facing each other but it was obvious by the look on their faces that they weren't looking at each other; they were lost in their own thoughts. And what they were seeing was anyone's guess. But somehow, all the people out of the little network got the impression that they were talking to each other. That they were, somehow, in each other's mind.

Sam was the first one to try and get them to explain what they were seeing, "Jack? Jack, can you hear me?"

"Sure, Sam. I'm not deaf." Jack answered her instantly, but the look on his face didn't change.

"Can you please look at me and tell me what is it that you're seeing?"

It took a few moments but Jack eventually turned to look at her and with a sheepish face said, "Sorry, didn't mean to ignore you but it's amazing, Sam. You should see it."

"I'd love to, but it doesn't sound like I can," Sam said evenly, though she like everyone else there wished desperately that she too could go wherever it was that Jack, John and Carson were able to go. "Why don't you tell what it is like? That maybe the closest I ever get."

"Well, you know how when the internet was first beginning they called it the information highway?" Jack asked.

"Yes, they still call it that to some extent."

"Well, that's what it is like." Seeing by her expression that she didn't get it, he tried to explained it further, "It's like that information highway is going right through my brain. Only that it is Atlantis and not the internet. I can see everything, the whole city. And I can access it with only a thought. And I can even interact with it, it's incredible."

"Interact? You mean like the city is alive?" Daniel asked, his brain already full of questions.

"No, it's not alive, not in the sense you mean. But it can feel me, well us," he said waving a hand between himself, John and Carson. "And it responds to our thoughts; it also lets us know anything new with it or if it needs something. Like a really sophisticate computer that learns and grows and adapts to new situations because of the new input data."

"You said that it felt all three of you. Can you feel each other too?" Sam asked.

"Yes," this time it was John who answered. "If we go with the information highway analogy, then its like I can see where the General and Carson are in their trip and if I need to I can communicate with them"

"How?" Asked Elizabeth. "Are you in each other's minds? Can you read each other's thoughts?"

"No, lass. It's nothing as intrusive as that." It was the first time Carson had spoken up to anyone since he'd felt the full effect of the city.  
"Like John said, I know they're there and I know where they are and I can call and talk to them if I want to or need to. But I'm not going into their heads. It's more like I call them and we meet in a neutral place. Because to be frank, while the highway is going through our minds we're not really in our minds when we're in it, if you see what I mean."

"No, Carson. We don't see what you mean. 'While the highway is going through our minds, we're not in our minds when we're in it?' What the hell kind of explanation is that?" Rodney said what everyone else was thinking, if n a decidedly ruder manner.

"Well, I'm sorry, Rodney; I'm doing the best I can. But I don't bloody know how this stuff works! That's _your_ department, not mine." Carson said in a somewhat loud voice.

" Carson, we know you're doing the best you can and we appreciate it, really. But you have to understand that your explanation didn't really made sense to us. Even if Rodney could have said it better." Elizabeth said, giving a stern glare at Rodney who seemed to settled down some under it.

"It's just that, lass, I'm not sure if I can explain it better." Carson started to apologize when John spoke up, "I think I know what Carson meant. The General said that the highway was going through his brain and he's right, in a way. I think it'd be more accurate to say that something like an access portal to the highway comes through our brains."

"Yes," Jack agreed. "I think that is a better way of explaining it. And that's what Carson meant. Once we cross the portal we're no longer in our brains per se but on the highway – or in this case, I guess we could call it the Atlantis network?" Jack finished the explanation and looked at John and Carson to see if they agreed with it and received nods from both of them.

"Wait, wait a minute here." This time it was Cameron that spoke up and said what everyone else was thinking. "Are you saying that your mind somehow leaves your body and enters this network!" He asked in an incredulous voice. "Is your mind leaving your body? Is that even possible?" The look on the faces of everyone else showed how disturbing they also found that concept.

"No, no. That's not what he meant at all. I mean . . ." John started to try to explained it better but found that he wasn't sure how but from the look of Carson's face maybe he had a better idea. "Doc, you want to take it from here?"

"Yes, I do. In a way, a very real way, you're right, Col Mitchell." Carson said to the considerable surprised of everyone present, including John and Jack.

"He is?" came from almost everyone there and from Cameron, "I am? And please call me Cameron."

"Cameron," Carson said with a nod in his direction. "And yes in a way you're right, but not totally. I think, and this is just a theory you have to understand." He said looking at Elizabeth. "I won't know anything for sure until I've run a whole set of tests on the General, John and myself."

While Elizabeth said, "We know, Rodney. Go on." Jack muttered, "Oh, joy, more tests." And John just grimaced and nodded his agreement with Jack's statement.

Rodney ignored them and after hearing Elizabeth continued, "Well, I think that part, and only part, of our brains somehow detaches itself and goes onto the network."

That statement brought another wave of incredulous exclamations, the most prevalent of which was 'is that possible?'

Carson put his hands up to try and quiet everyone down and then went on, "Maybe detached was the wrong word. I think it's more like un-coils. Wait, please let me finish," he said when everyone started talking again. "I think that this maybe one of the results of the Ancient gene. You know that we've never found that there was anything different with those carrying the gene that the rest of population except for its presence. Well, maybe that was because it would only 'activate' here in Atlantis and only when the city was fully awake." While Carson had not been present for the whole discussion of when the city awoke, the time he'd spent on the 'network' had clearly shown him that the city had just really woken up. "Now that the city is awake our minds are acting like they've been programmed by the gene. Part of it is un-coiling or stretching so that it can go into the network and do whatever we need to do there. That way the network doesn't actually comes into our minds, that would be too intrusive and dangerous; but since it is only a part of our brain that it is still connected to the bigger part, we don't run the risk of getting our consciousness trapped on the network if something went to go wrong. Don't you see? It makes perfect sense." Carson finished his explanation and looked at everyone to see what they thought of his theory. But everyone had been stunned into silence.

Finally it was Sam that broke the silence, "I guess that makes sense. I mean, we never found that the gene made any difference; besides letting you access Ancient technology, which, when you think about it, this is precisely what it is."

"Exactly! And it would also explain why only those born with the gene would get access to the network and not those that had the therapy. I mean if you think about it," Carson said in a very excited tone of voice, "the therapy only graphs the gene onto another's DNA. It does not actually integrate the gene into the DNA but only imprints its signature so that person that underwent the therapy can use Ancient technology. Yes, I know that this is also Ancient technology. But think about it; this is a much more advance and sophisticated interaction between the person and the machine. More than just the gene's presence is needed. Like I said, the gene must have been programming our brains since before we were born – there just no way that the therapy could have the same effect. No way." Carson finished emphatically.

Once again, there was absolute silence as they all tried to come to grips with what they were discovering. Everyone but Jack, John and Carson found the idea that part of their brain could uncoil extreme disconcerting. They, also, as much as they tried, just couldn't really image what the other three were experiencing and couldn't help but wish that they were also experiencing it.

Jack, John and Carson didn't find the idea that part of their brain could literally take a hike all that disconcerting. Nor did they find it disturbing that they could in effect touch the mind of other persons and talk to them in a mental network. Something told them that perhaps they should, but it all felt so damn natural that it was hard to feel the least bit intimidated, let alone afraid by it. Maybe the fact that there were at least other two people that had the same ability helped them to not feel isolated or terribly freakish by their new found abilities. Actually Jack and John and to some extent Carson, felt a bit smug and superior. After all, only they had the gene. And Jack couldn't really help it; he was still Jack and his comebacks were an integral part of him, "I guess Thor was right, uh? I am, well, we are the next step in our evolution." He said with a grin.

That comment was received by glares and various snorts from almost everyone in the room. Except Carson and John, who very subtly catched each other's eyes and nodded.

Completely ignoring Jack, Daniel went back to a point that still bugged him. "Ok, doc. I guess all that makes sense and explains how you guys going into this network and how you can control the computers from there. But what I would really like to know is why did this happen right now? I mean the city had been slowing waking up for the past two years, so why now? I guess it could be the natural culmination, but it just seems to me to be too much of a coincidence that all of this happens moments after Jack beams down, don't you guys think?" Daniel asked the group in general.

"Yes, Daniel. You're right. That'd be too much of a coincidence." John said. "The city was waking up but it still had a ways to go before it woke up fully. Something about the General woke the city before it would have woken up naturally. But it is also as if the city had been waiting for whatever it is that the General has or represents." John explained what he had gathered from his time in the network.

Carson nodded his agreement when the others looked at him and Jack just shrugged when the looks where in his direction.

"So, the question now is: What does Jack have or what does he represent that he awoke Atlantis?" Daniel said, summoning up the question in everyone's mind once again.

**AN3: **I have no idea how the gene therapy is supposed to work, and totally guessing here. But I needed it to work this way, so let's say that for the purpose of this fiic, it does.


	6. Ancient, who?

SG1 in Atlantis

**Disclaimer**: they don't belong to me, though I really wish they did. Neither does the whole concept of Atlantis or a city control mentally, I'm just playing with it.

**AN**: ok, this is a future fic, only three years but still in the future. As any of you who have read any of my fics know, I'm a shipper. So, here I'm making a couple of assumption that should really come as no surprise to anyone that has read my other fic: Sam and Jack are together and so are Tayla and John. Ok, that's it for author's note.

Chapter 6: **Ancient, who?**

As the others started speculating about what Jack could possibly have or represent, Jack got this weird look on his face and started to leave the room.

"Jack? Where are you going?" Sam asked as she saw him leave.

All of the sudden, John and Carson got the same look and John answered Sam, "I think he's going to the hologram room." And he turned and followed Jack out of the room.

"The hologram room?" Sam asked looking around at the others. "What's that? And why are you going?"

"It's a room where we found a hologram of an ancient when we first got here," Carson answered. "As to why we're going, well, I'm thinking that the General thinks the answers are there."

Sam looked around the room and when she caught Daniel's eyes, he said, "Then, I guess we better go too, huh?"

"Yeah, let's go." Sam agreed with him as she started to walk out, followed by everyone.

They hurried to follow Jack and John that were the ones in the lead. Sam run to catch up to Jack and asked him, "Jack, how do you know where you're going?"

Jack looked at her and said, "I'm not sure. But I think that somehow or other I know almost everything there is to know about Atlantis."

That answer took Sam aback and she wasn't sure how to respond to it. The idea that in less than half hour her husband had received enough information that now he knew everything there was to know about Atlantis was, well, it was weird, to say the least.

As the group walked down the corridors of Atlantis, they heard a voice call out, "Daniel! Wait up." They stopped and turned to see how was calling and saw Vala hurrying up to them. "I'm glad I found you. I spent the last ten minutes walking around trying to find where the heck you guys were beamed down."

"Hey, Vala. Sorry, I didn't look for you, but things have been a bit crazy here." Daniel explained as Vala joined the group and they resumed their trek to the hologram room. "Where did you end up, anyway?"

"Oh, I ended up in the infirmary with the Doc. She's still there by the way. All of those cool new gadgets have totally grabbed her attention. She's like a kid in a candy store." She then looked around a bit and said, "So, this is the Lost City of the Ancients, uh? So, are you going to be like a kid in a candy store, too?"

"Yeah, probably. Well, as soon as we solve this latest mystery." Seeing Vala's puzzled expression, Daniel went on to explained just what had been going on since they beamed down.

"Wow, that's unbelievable." Vala said shaking her head in awe.

"Tell me about it," Daniel said just as they crossed the doorway to what turned out to be the hologram room. They were the last ones in the room and came just in time to see Jack stepped up into a platform. As soon as he fully stepped on it, the hologram of a woman came on. It was the same woman, Melia, from the hologram that Carson had found all those years ago. But it was a completely new message.

"Hello. I'm, we're, so glad you're here. If you're hearing this message then that means we were successful. Not only did Atlantis survived for ten thousand years but our line has also survived." That bit drew made everyone looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and surprise. As if she knew the confusion she'd cause she said, "I know you must have a lot of questions right now, so let me begin at the beginning and see if that answers them.

"A few days ago, a Dr. Elizabeth Wier was rescued from the bottom on the ocean. She was aboard one of our ships, one that had been modified by Janus and had actually brought her back in time. She's from ten thousand years into the future. Presumably from your own time. The council has denied her and Janus's requests to send her back to her own time – time travel is not something to be taken lightly. The repercussion could be disastrous if not undertaken with the utmost care." At this, Sam nodded her head and shared a knowing look with the Jack, Daniel and Teal'c – they knew very well how dangerous time travel could be.

"Especially now, when we just don't have the resources to spare for a true study. We're in the process of preparing the evacuation back to Earth and cannot devote neither the time nor resources needed. However, we know Janus; we know how stubborn he can be when he thinks he's right. I'm sure that even as I'm leaving this message, he's devising a means to ensure that Dr. Weir gets back to her time and a means for the shield not to fail." The Atlantis crew shared a look as they remembered the story that the other Elizabeth had told them and thankful that Janus had indeed found a way to keep the shield from failing completely.

"Janus thinks we don't know about his activities. He should know there's very little that goes on in Atlantis that we don't know about." There was something about the way she said 'we' that had Jack raising one eyebrow.

"While we may not officially endorse his endeavors, we do hope that he'll be successful. And if you're playing this message, he was." She paused for a minute and took a big breath as she looked to the side for a minute. "Dr. Weir's told us quite a bit about the journey that led you to find Atlantis. It's quite a tale. And it's the reason why I decided to leave this message. You don't know how glad we are that you, the heir, exists." That once drew perplexed looks from all those gathered – except Jack, John and Carson, who for some reason seem to know where this was going.

"It is a bit strange to be talking to you. We weren't sure you'd ever exist and now we don't only know you exist but thanks to Dr. Weir we even have a name for you: General Jack O'Neill." The one piece of information one would have thought would have blown them all off, only seemed to surprised Cameron, Vala, and Rodney. Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and Elizabeth seemed to have seen it coming.

"You're probably asking yourselves how do we know you're the heir and what that means. Well, the easy answer to the first question is that only the heir's genetic make up could have activated this message. The answer to the second question is a bit more involved.

"As you already know, Atlantis is an interactive city. All of our citizens are able to communicate with it and to a certain extent they can also command the city's functions. The extent to which a person can command the city depends on his or her status. For what Dr. Weir has told us of your culture you value equality highly and so do we. However, you must know that for any society to thrive, there must by necessity be some form of governmental body to rule over the citizens. In our case, that is the ruling council. The council is made up of prominent citizens from a variety of fields and representatives of what were once the ruling families.

"It is only the council members that have the ability and power to command the sensitive aspects of the city's functions. The most sensitive aspects, however, are only accessible by the representative of what was once the royal house of Atlantis. This is a security procedure that was implemented generations ago for the protection of all Lanteans; it is a fundamental component of the city. To dismantle it would take longer than we have; our evacuation back to Earth is imminent. But our leaving with this safeguard in place means that Atlantis won't fully awake and won't revealed all of its treasures to you until and unless the descendant of our house comes to the city and interacts with it.

"Only you, our rightful heir or _your_ descendants will be able to truly awake the city and access all of its secrets."

With that the hologram ended and absolute silence descended on the room, as the group tried to assimilate all they've just learned. It was Cameron that voiced the question they all were thinking of, "Does that mean the General O'Neill is an ancient?"

Predictably it was Sam that answered, "Well, I think that it means that he's the closest to them of all of us. But, Thor had already told us that he was our next step in our evolution. I guess that makes sense if he's their direct descendant." Even though she spoke thoughtfully and calmly as if this was just another puzzle, it was obvious by an undertone in her voice that she was as surprised as the rest of them

Suddenly, Daniel pointed to the hologram platform and stated in a 'I just remembered voice', "I know her!"

John, who looked more preoccupied than surprised said, "Yeah, that is the same lady that we saw when we first came to Atlantis."

"No, I mean I actually _know_ her." Daniel said while looking directly at Jack.

Jack came out of his absorbed silence and asked Daniel, "What do you mean? As if you knew her while you were ascended?"

"Exactly," responded Daniel, he knew Jack would get it. "Her name is Melia. I saw her around back then. And it usually was whenever I came back to check on your guys – especially on you, Jack." Another significant look passed between the two friends.

"You think she was checking up on me, too?" Though it was a question, Jack already knew the answer.

"Yes, I do. But I think she was doing more than just checking up on you."

"But I thought that the Ancients did not interfere in our affairs. That that was a no-no." Cameron observed, while Jack and Daniel kept looking at each other.

"Not usually, no." Daniel answered turning to look at Cameron. "But, remember that Oma helped people she considered worthy. That was interfering; it just was shy of the line that they had set that shouldn't be cross. It's reasonable to assume that there were others that were also interfering without crossing that line. And this lady must be one of them."

"So, she . . .what?" Asked Sam. "Guided Jack? Protected him? What?"

"I'm not sure. Whatever she did, and is probably still doing, must be subtle or she'd run the risk of the others stopping her. But I think it is fair to say that she _was_ looking out for him."

"What? Like my guardian angel?" Asked Jack and there was an undercurrent of bitterness in his voice that was noted by all, but only Sam, Daniel and Teal'c guessed its source.

Daniel shrugged his shoulders and looking somewhat uncomfortable nodded, "Yeah, I guess."

As Jack snorted, letting everyone know his opinion of that idea, a white light appeared where the hologram had been standing. When it cleared, the same lady from the hologram was standing there. But it was clear to all that this was no hologram; this was the real thing. There, in front of them, a real, live Ancient was standing.

"Hello." She said as they all stood there looking at her with dumbfounded expressions. Her gaze finally rested on Jack and noting his tight expression went straight to the point and asked, "You don't like the idea that I checked up on you from time to time? Or is it the idea that I looked out for you that you don't like?"

Jack frowned as he looked at her for few seconds and then in a flat voice said, "I actually don't like either one. But I have a really problem with the idea that you're out there supposedly looking out for me but still letting tragedies occurred when you could prevent them." By the time he finished speaking his voiced had gone from flat to bitter and Daniel and Sam both winced while Teal'c just raised an eyebrow. The others had no idea what was going on, but knew that Jack was talking about specific events. They weren't left in the dark for long.

"You're talking about Charlie's death." It was not a question, really.

"Yes. If you really are the good guys everyone seems to think you are, I don't understand how you could have let such a senseless accident happened without stopping it."

Melia just looked at him for a while and then said, "I regret more than you'll ever know that he had to died and that I could do nothing to prevent it. But as Daniel has already explained we are not allowed to interfered in your development or your fate."

"And yet you do. Oma interferes when she helps others ascend and you do when you meddle in my life." Jack pointed out in a decidedly unfriendly tone of voice.

"Yes," she agreed with a nod of her head. "But as Daniel has also explained, there are levels of interference. What Oma did was permitted because she only chose people that were already on their way to ascension and that were at the end of their lives in this plane of existence."

"But Daniel wasn't, though." Sam objected. "My dad was curing him using the healing device." Sam said as she looked at Jack and Teal'c and saw in their eyes the same grief she was feeling – even after all this years and with Daniel back with them, it was still very hard for them to think about that time.

"He was making some progress, yes." Melia once again agreed with a nod of her head. "However, there was no guarantee the he would have succeeded. And at the end, it was Daniel's decision. The only thing Oma did was present him with options that he had been well on his way to discovering by himself. If you want to call that interference, that's fine – but that kind of interference is permitted."

"It sounds like a lot like splitting hairs to me." Jack grumbled.

"Not really," Daniel said with a look on his face that the members of SG1, Jack and Vala knew meant that he was trying to recall his time as an Ancient. "I mean, Oma never really interfered in my life. She never make things happened to me, or kept from doing things or make me do things. She just presented me with information and options and what I did with them was completely up to me. She never pushed me one way or the other. And she only did it when as a result of my own actions I was on the brink of death. I guess you could call it interference if you really wanted it to; but it wasn't really. At least not the kind of interference that'd have affected the development of human kind."

"Ok," Jack said, taking Daniel at his word. "So, what kind of interference did you do? Because according to Daniel here, and yourself, you did interfered with my life in some way, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did." She answered and if Jack was waiting for some form of apology form her, he would have had a long, long wait. "And it was of the same type Oma used. Unobtrusive, subtle; nothing that would have changed the path you were destined to travel or that would have intrude with you free will. I simply tried to make things a bit simpler, easier for you whenever I could."

"Easier?" Jack repeated and would have gone on in a tirade about how watching your only son died hadn't been easy at all, but Sam interrupted him by asking, "How did you make things easier, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I just tried to make his injuries a bit less severe so that he wouldn't be in too much pain and his recoveries would be faster. Though he didn't need my help much with that; he has a naturally stronger physiology than normal."

Daniel noted the way she said that and wanted to ask about it but she was still explaining and he didn't feel right interrupting her, so he made a mental note to ask about it later.

"Also, whenever he had to make a big decision, I'd nudged him in the right direction." Seeing the look in Jack's face at that revelation, she hastened to add. "But I never made the decisions for you. I only nudged in the right direction when you yourself where already leaning that way. I knew you would have eventually reached the right conclusions; I just made it a little easier by giving you a slight push in that direction."

Jack snorted a bit mollified with that explanation but not completely sold on the whole idea yet. "That still doesn't explained why you just let Charlie died when you could have prevented it."

"Actually, Jack, yes it does." Daniel began to answer but seeing the glare Jack was sending his way, decided it'd be better if he sat this one out.

"As I said, we can give nudges and maybe make some things that were going to happen anyway, easier. But we can not interfere with anyone's fate or with the development of human kind as a whole."

"So, what? You're telling me that it was his fate to die? Or that preventing his death would have interfered with our development?" Jack asked.

"Both," in contrast to Jack's voice, Melia's voice was calm and quiet.

"What the hell does my son's life have to do with the development of human kind?" Jack asked incredulous; but as he looked at Sam, Daniel and Teal'c, he could tell by their expressions that they had a pretty good ideal where this was going and that, as much as they didn't like it, they agreed with what was being said. And if he was honest with himself, he had to acknowledge that in some part of his mind, he also knew what this was all meant - that didn't mean he had to like it.

"It had a lot to do with it," she stated. And seeing from his set expression that he wasn't going to budge, she continued, " If he hadn't died you would not be here. You were already thinking about stopping your field work because you were missing so much of his life." At this Sam and Daniel turned towards Jack with equally surprised expressions, this was the first they've ever heard of this.

"If Charlie had been injured but had not died, you would have quit the Air Force if they hadn't let you retire from the field. You would have been determined to dedicate your life to your family. A most noble goal." Melia paused to see if Jack would say anything. But there was nothing that he could say – she was right. He would have the Air Force rather than missing more of his son's life.

"If you had quit the Air Force, and even if you hadn't, you would have never been given the Abydos assignment." She didn't say it, but he knew why not: the only reason he'd been given that assignment to begin with was because he was suicidal. If Charlie had lived, Jack would have had no reason to be suicidal and would have never been called for that mission. The others in the room, with the exception of Sam, Daniel and Teal'c and maybe Elizabeth, didn't know why she was so sure of that, but since O'Neill didn't bother to contradict her, they figured she was right and that they would just have to live without knowing the whole story.

"And if you hadn't gone to Abydos, you wouldn't have met Daniel; you wouldn't have met Skarra and the other Abydonians. Chances are that whoever was sent in your place wouldn't have bothered to help them fight. Ra wouldn't have been defeated and Daniel may well have died there. But even if he didn't, what are the chances that anyone else but you would have failed to followed orders about the bomb? Or be willing to falsify his report when he went back and said everyone was dead? You know that the only reason the others went along with the story was because they respected you. They wouldn't have done it for anyone else."

"So, you're saying that Charlie had to died because I was supposed to go to Abydos and kill Ra?" Jack asked bitterly.

"Yes," she answered simply. "It may sound cruel," at that Jack couldn't help another snort and a bitter, sarcastic, "Ya think?" "But that's the truth. You were needed in Abydos. And you were needed after. Only you could have led SG1 and have them accomplished everything they have."

"Please," Jack said shaking his head. "Anyone else could have led them just as well. They," pointing at Sam and Daniel, "are the brains of the outfit."

"Maybe, though I know just how smart _you_ are, so don't even bother playing dumb with me." At that Jack made a face but kept his silence, knowing it would have been useless to argue. "But you were and are the heart."

"I was the brawn, Danny here is the conscience." Jack argued, not comfortable with being called the 'heart'. It didn't do anything for his 'tough General' reputation.

"Yes, but you were the soul." Seeing the look on Jack's face, she knew she would have to say more if she was to convince him of how important he had been to the continued survival of the human race. "Sam may have dealt with the scientific, mechanical aspects of gate travel; and Daniel may have dealt with the cultural aspects and they both may have advised you and pointed out moral arguments. But at the end of the day, it was you that made the final decisions, you, who had the responsibility, not only for the safety of your team but ultimately, for Earth. Can you imagine what would have happened if Sam or Daniel would have been the ones making the decisions?"

"Hey," Jack protested as Sam shot her a glare. "Sam is a great CO."

"Yes, now she is. But back when you started going through the gate? Would she have made the right decisions? She would most likely been carried away by her awe, her sense of scientific discovery and in some cases her emotional reactions to the situations." Sam grimaced but couldn't really deny the charge. "And Daniel, Daniel would have also been swept by what his own sense of discovery. He wouldn't have been able to see beyond wonder of meeting all those new people. As brilliant as they both are and as a good a soldier as Sam was, neither one of them had the tactical training you had. Neither one was trained to see the bigger, complete picture." Jack turned to looked at Daniel and Sam and found both of them reluctantly nodding.

"She's right, Jack." Sam acknowledged. "I wouldn't be soldier I am today if I hadn't had you to learn from. I wasn't anywhere near ready to lead the team back then. I couldn't have made half the decisions you had to make."

"Yes, whether you choose to admit it or not, you and only you were needed, Jack." Melia said and then looked at his eyes and sighed before saying, "Jack, making the hard decisions, the ones where you sent good people to where they could die or stop them from coming back – that's what makes you a leader. Making those decisions doesn't mean you're heartless. It just means that your heart is strong enough for you to do what needs to be done."

Jack looked into her eyes and saw only truth and honesty there and, surprisingly, he found that the he was able to let go of some of the guilt he carried over some of the decisions he'd had to make over his long career.

Melia saw the acceptance of what she was saying and pressed her advantage. "And Teal'c. If anyone else had gone to Chulak, do you think that Teal'c would have turned his back on everything he knew, left his family to follow them?" Jack and everyone else in the room turned to look at Teal'c. 

Teal'c looked at Melia and raised an eyebrow; he then turned to look at Jack and said, "Indeed not."

"It was you and what he saw in your eyes, your strength and determination, that convinced him you would really be able to help him and his people."

"Melia is, indeed, right, O'Neill." Teal'c acknowledge.

"Hump," Jack didn't know what else to say. Sure it was flattering to think Teal'c helped them because he believed in Jack. And somehow, he'd always known that if Charlie had lived he would never have gone through the Stargate; but to hear that he had to die because Jack had some destiny to fulfill? Or because his life would have interrupted human development? It was a bit more than Jack was ready to accept.

"Look, I've dedicated my life to the military and to the defense of my country and Earth. And I've also accepted the fact that at any moment I may be called to give up my life for my country and planet. But that is _my_ life – _not_ my kid's." Jack said adamantly.

Melia said looking Jack straight in the eye, "Unfortunately, there are some things that can not be changed. No matter how much we may want to, there are some things even us can not prevent." Just as Jack opened his mouth to comment, she continued. "However, while there are things we can't change, there are also things that we _can_."

Jack closed his mouth at that pronouncement. It took him a moment to gather his thoughts and then he said, "What do you mean exactly?

"I mean that you are our heir, our direct descendant. As such you have our gene. And it is that gene that allows you to operate our technology; that allows you to connect and awake the city. And it has also given more gifts that you are aware of."

That little revelation once again stunned everyone in the room. It seemed that Melia had thrown one bomb after another since she first appeared.

Typically, it was Daniel that spoke first. "'Other gifts?' Is that what you meant when you said that that Jack had 'stronger physiology than normal'?

Melia looked at Daniel and smiled. "You were always very observant, Daniel. Yes that is exactly what I meant. Having the gene means that he's stronger, more resilient and has more endurance than your typical human."

Despite the seriousness of the moment, Jack couldn't help a small smirk at that

"That kind of makes sense actually." Sam admitted. "I mean given all the injuries Jack has had, all the torture he's been through and all the times he was near death . . ."

"Don't forget all the times he's actually died," Daniel interrupted. "I guess having the gene is a good reason why he's beaten the odds time and time again." He then paused as he thought of something. "Wait a minute. Is that why he was able to go through the sarcophagus as many times as he did and not loose himself?" That one had always bothered Daniel (well, ever since he'd remembered it). Sure, he'd been there to try and keep him sane, but as many times as Jack had gone through it, he should by rights gone insane. "That's why there wasn't any of you there to offer him ascension. You knew he'd be all right!"

"Yes, we knew it was not yet his time. And we knew that his mind was strong enough to resist its effects. Though, you shouldn't discount the help you gave him, Daniel.

"Yes," Daniel said absent-mindedly; obviously his mind had already moved on or back as was the case. "Anya and that plague." Though, he hadn't been with the team when they've encountered the plague, he'd been around and he'd read the mission's report.

Sam was obviously thinking along the same lines. "Why was he the last one to come down with the symptoms? If he has so much of your physiology, why didn't he come down with it before the rest of us? After all, it was the plague that brought you down, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was. And that was why he was able to resist it as long as he did; his immune system was able to combat it longer than yours. However, that was also why when he did come down with it, it affected him so strongly and so fast."

"Is that why Anya wasn't able to cure him?" Daniel asked

Sam looked at him sharply and said, "We've always assumed that was because she no longer had any energy after curing the rest of us."

"Yes, that was part of the problem, but not all of it. Even if she had tried to cure him first, she wouldn't have succeeded. While Jack does not have our exact physiology, he's close enough to us for the plague to affect him the same way as it did us; and we weren't able to cure it by our healing power. Anya knew this, that's why she cured all of you first and then went and tried to help him. If she'd have done it the other way, she wouldn't have saved any of you."

"But why did taking the Tok'ra symbiote cured him, if he'd been so affected?" Sam asked, the scientist in her once again coming to the front.

"The symbiote was a completely alien organism. His make up was somehow able to counter the effects of the plague. If we've known of them back then, we might have been able to do something about it."

"Ok! Listening to why I'm still alive after so many close calls if fascinating, really!" Jack cut in sarcastically – listening about the time when he had taken the Tok'ra was _not_ something he enjoyed, at all! "But that does not tell me what you meant when you said you were able to change some things. That did have something to do with Charlie, didn't it?"

"Yes," she answered with a small, secretive smile.

"Oh, my God!" Exclaimed Daniel. "I think I know what she meant."

"Great, then maybe you can tell me." Said Jack.

"I can't believe I didn't see it sooner." He said looking at Melia with his eyes wide open. "It's so clear now. That's the real reason no one was there and why no one tried to stopped me. He wouldn't have really needed any help, would he?

"What help? Who wouldn't have needed help?"

"No, he wouldn't." Melia answered.

"Can SOMEONE please tell me WHAT you guys are TALKING about?"

"Don't you see, Jack?" Daniel answered. "The reason no one tried to stopped me from helping you ascend was because you didn't _need_ any help!"

"What? What do you mean?

"You would have ascended anyway, on your own - eventually." Then he turned to Melia and asked, "But how would that have worked?"

"Daniel!" Jack yelled and then asked Melia, "WHAT is he talking about?

"What Daniel is trying to say is that as our descendant, you'll be able to ascend once you feel you have completed everything you needed to accomplished in his plane."

"Ascend? Me?" Jack asked incredulous. "But I've never wanted to ascend."

"That's because somehow you've always known that there was still things you needed to do here. But once you do everything you need to do, you'll move on to next stage. As everyone in your family has done before you."

Jack was so preoccupied with the idea that one day he'll actually be _ready_ to ascend that it took him a moment to process what Melia had just said. "_Everyone_? You mean Charlie . . .?"

Melia nodded smiling, "You didn't really think that we would let one of our families just go, did you?" And she turned to look to a spot close to her where a bright while light suddenly appeared. As the light disappeared a nine year old – a very familiar nine years old – was left behind.

"Charlie?" Jack asked in a trembling voice

"Hi, dad." Charlie said with a wave and a grin that was Jack all over.

**AN2:** First of all, I'm sorry for taking so long. It's just that while I knew what I wanted to say, I had trouble actually saying it in a couple of places. I hope you guys like this chapter as much as the ohters. And I'm really, really sorry about stopping at such a cliff hanger but the chapter is already long enough and I wanted to post something before too much time passed and that was a great stopping place. I promise to try and post faster. Please, let me know what you think: If you like it, love it, hate it, just review and let me know.


	7. I can't believe it!

**SG1 in Atlantis**

**Disclaimer**: they don't belong to me, though I really wish they did. Neither does the whole concept of Atlantis or a city control mentally, I'm just playing with it.

**AN**: ok, this is a future fic, only three years but still in the future. As any of you who have read any of my fics know, I'm a shipper. So, here I'm making a couple of assumption that should really come as no surprise to anyone that has read my other fic: Sam and Jack are together and so are Tayla and John. Ok, that's it for author's note.

**AN2: **Thank you for all the reviews and like I promised here the next chapter. I know how hard cliff hangers are,but that one just wrote itself:) Ok, Ilovesg1: I know that it was a lot of info and maybe I should broke it into two chapters but I kinda like bigger chapters. Let me know if it was confusing and you would rather have shorter, less informative chapters. As for your 2ndquestions well, the answer it's in this chapter - so I won't spoil it right now. As for the first, well, I guess it's possible though I hadn't really thought about it. What do you think? Natters: here's the other chapter, I don't want to torture you too much. Ok, one last thing, there is a small spoiler for something that will happen on my other story: Te Amare. Let's see if you spot it. Enjoy!

**Chapter 7:** **I can't believe it!**

Almost everyone in the room was staring open-mouthed at Charlie, with the exception of Vala who instead of an open mouth had wide open eyes. They all looked as if they've just seen a ghost, which wasn't surprising since Charlie was technically dead. Even Daniel, who had already figured out what Melia was talking about, couldn't help but be surprised at seeing his best friend's dead son. After staring at Charlie for a few seconds, the room turned to stare at Jack, almost as one.

Jack couldn't really believe his eyes; his son, who had died more than ten years before was standing before him. "Charlie is that really you?" He asked in a shaky voice, when he finally managed to say something.

"Yes, Dad. It's really me." Charlie answered with a sweet smile that Sam recognized instantly. It was the same smile that Jack always gave he told her he loved her.

"I . . . I can't believe it." Jack said as he stepped towards Charlie. He lifted a trembling hand towards Charlie's face and when it made contact with his cheek, Jack took a deep breath and pulled his son into a hard hug. "Oh, God, I can't believe it really is you. I missed you so much."

"And I you, dad." Charlie said as he hugged his dad just as hard as he was being hugged.

The two hugged for a long time, whispering how much they loved and missed each other.

Melia smiled as she took in the father-son reunion. Most of the Atlantis crew and Cameron were uncomfortable witnessing what was clearly a very private moment for Jack – it was especially uncomfortable for Cameron and John who were watching the hard as nails General O'Neill crying. And even though they felt they should leave and give Jack his privacy, they all stayed in their places immobilized by the touching scene in front of them.

The original members of SG1 did not feel at all uncomfortable watching the reunion between Jack and Charlie. They were family after all, and had been witnesses to some the most tragic, devastating moments in each other lives; it was only appropriate that they were witness to such a happy moment in Jack's life. Teal'c watched the moment with a small smile; he too was a father and though he couldn't really know the extent of O'Neill's pain at having lost this son, he could imagine it too easily. Daniel too had a small warm smile as he watched. He of everyone present had been the only one that had seen what losing Charlie had done to Jack and he was only glad that his friend had this chance to put some of his ghosts to rest. Sam, on the other hand, watched the reunion with tears pouring down her face and a sweet smile on her lips. She couldn't help it, she just felt so happy for Jack. She knew, maybe even more than Daniel, what losing Charlie had done to Jack and what seeing him again, especially now, would mean to him.

After a long time of hugging his son, Jack finally let go enough to be able to see his face. He knew he was crying and under any other circumstances the fact that he was doing it in front of at least two persons under his command would bother the shit out of him. But right now, he just couldn't give a damn.

Jack cupped Charlie's cheek as his eyes studied every inch of his face and compared it to the image he carry in his mind – it was the same. "You look just like you did back then. Haven't you aged at all?"

Charlie shrugged and said, "We don't really age, dad. I guess I could have appeared as if I've aged but I thought this would be better."

Jack thought about what it would be like to see what his son would be like as a young man and decided that it would make it harder to let him go. "You're right; it is better." He then chuckle a bit and wiped his cheeks and then Charlie's cheeks. With a wry smile, he put his arm around Charlie's shoulders and turned to face the room. He took a few steps towards were Sam was standing and said, "This is Sam, my wife. Sam, this is Charlie."

Sam smile and wiping her cheeks stepped forward and extended looked at her hand and said, "I think I'd rather have a hug." And he stepped towards her with his arms opened.

Sam laughed and pulled him into a hug. Charlie looked so much like Jack that she was surprised by his openness with his emotions. And when he whispered in her ear, "I'm so glad you married my dad; you make him really happy." She couldn't help it she starting crying again. She pulled back after a few seconds and wiping her cheeks again said, "I'm so happy to finally meet you."

Jack looked at Sam and with his eyes asked her if she was ok and she just nodded. With a brief nod of his own, he turned to Charlie and motioning towards Daniel and Teal'c, he started to introduce them only to be interrupted by Charlie saying, "I know who they all are, dad."

"You do?" Jack asked incredulous.

"Of course," Charlie answered matter of fact. "You don't think Melia is the only that checks up on you, do you?"

"W. . .What?" Jack asked and for some reason that totally surprised him. Sam found it amusing that of all the revelation they've just had, for some reason this was the one that seems to have thrown him for a loop. "You mean that all this time that were," and he started to wave his hand around in the air, "all glowy. . ."

"Ascended, dad. I was ascended." Charlie corrected him with the same tone of voice that Daniel always used when he's the one correcting. Sam caught it and had to stifle a laugh. No wonder Jack had always gotten along with Daniel and had allowed the younger man to get away with stuff no one else would have – he'd seen in Daniel an echo of his son.

"Ok. All this time you were ascended and you were checking on me?" At Charlie's nod, Jack continued, "And you never once came and talk. You didn't thing I would have liked to see you, to know that you were all right?"

Charlie turned and looked at Melia for a second and seeing her nod he turned back to Jack and said, "Dad, I couldn't."

Jack cut in and said, "You were ascended," stressing the word almost like it was a curse, "don't tell me you couldn't. You could pretty much do anything you wanted."

"Dad, you know it doesn't word like that. But even if it did, I couldn't come see you. Not only because it was against the rules but because it wouldn't have done you any good. In fact it would have probably done more bad than good."

At that, Jack exploded. "Rules! Since when do you follow rules! And what the hell do you mean seeing you would have been bad? How can seeing you and knowing you're ok be anything but good?"

"Because, Dad, you needed to let me go." Seeing that Jack was about to interrupt, he put his hand up and continued talking. "Dad, there were things you had to do and for that you had to move forward. You couldn't remain stuck in the past and that is what seeing me would have done – you would have continued to wallow in how bad you felt and in how much you missed. You needed to move on from that. Besides which, if I had come to you back then you would have thought you'd lost your mind and probably checked yourself in to a mental hospital." Charlie added with a grin. "And what good would that have done anyone?"

Jack shook his head but had to agree, at least to himself, that Charlie was right. He wouldn't have been able to move on if he'd seen him back then and he probably would have been convinced he was crazy. But he wasn't going to agree with anything, so he changed the subject.

"Things I had to do?" He asked and Charlie, knowing what he was doing, just shook his head. "Are we back to me having to be the one to go through the Stargate?" He asked looking at Melia.

"Yes, Jack. That is one of the reasons why Charlie ascended." Melia answered.

"One of the reasons?" Jack asked, wanting to know what other reason there could possibly exist for the death of his son.

"Yes, one of them. And don't bother asking what the others are." Melia added when she saw on his face his intent on doing just that. "Those are his and have nothing to do with this."

Jack looked like he was going to argue but Charlie forestalled him. "Dad, let it go, please. It was my time, my destiny. Just as this is your destiny. There was nothing that you could have done to prevent it - nothing that wouldn't have changed the course of human history. I know and accept it; now you have to. You weren't responsible; you have no reason to feel guilty." He added when he saw the look on Jack's face. "I was a curious nine years old that went looking for something I wasn't supposed to. You did nothing wrong; it was my choice to disobeyed you and break it into the locked box. Please, dad, let the guilt go and enjoyed your life. You've more than earned it." He said sincerely.

Jack stared into his son's eyes for a long moment and then gruffly said, "I'll try."

Charlie grinned and said, "That's all I ask. And now I gotta go."

"So soon? But you barely got here." The protest came from Sam, who knew how much Jack would want to spend more time with Charlie.

"I know but I have to go now." And after another look in Melia's direction, he added, "I promise that now that you know, I can come and visit more."

"You promise?"

"I promise, dad." Charlie answered and hugged his father again. Then he stepped back and with a mischievous grin that reminded Daniel of Jack just before he said something outrageous, Charlie said, "I think that next I'll come for the birth of my little sister. And, Sam," he turned to look at Sam, who had a 'deer in the headlights' look. "I think 'Grace' fits her perfectly. I'll see you soon." And with that he was gone, leaving a thunderous silence behind. Jack turned to look at Sam just as Daniel said, "Sister?" And seeing the looks in Jack and Sam's faces he asked in a soft and slightly menacing voice, "Guys, is there something you forgot to tell us?"

Jack and Sam both turned to look at Daniel who had his arms crossed and a 'don't mess with me' look on his face. Then they turned to look at Teal'c, and though the only change in his expression was a slight narrowing of his eyes, he managed to look more dangerous than usual. They then turned to look at each other and the others in the room could almost hear the 'oh-oh'.

Jack swallowed hard and said, "Now, guys. We just found out ourselves not that long ago. And we were going to tell you, promise. We just wanted to a bit of time to take it in and frankly, we wanted things to be a bit more calm so that we could really celebrate." Seeing that their expressions hadn't changed he added, "Honest," and then almost beneath his breath, "Charlie is so gonna get it."

The guys then turned their gazes on Sam and she gulped before saying, "Guys, really, we just found out and were going to tell you as soon as possible."

Teal'c and Daniel looked at each other and silently decided that it would be Teal'c who asked, "how long ago did you found out exactly, Col. O'Neill."

"A couple of days ago on board the Dedalius. So you see, not the best place to tell you really." Sam answered.

"Did Jan run the tests?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, I though it was the flu but she just wanted to be sure so she commandeered the ship's infirmary." Sam said grinning as she remembered it but then she sobered and with another glance at Jack, she asked, "So, are we ok?"

Daniel and Teal' just looked at them for a long while making Jack and Sam sweat much to the amusement of the others in the room. Tayla and Elizabeth had to bit their lips to keep from laughing out loud while John, Carson and Rodney's shook from their silent laughter. The sight of the two veterans of the Goa'uld war, these two extremely capable soldiers shaking in their boots because of the glares of their two best friends was extremely funny.

Only Vala and Cameron had no trouble with their mirth – and that was because they weren't trying to keep it contained. They've been around the other four long enough to know that Jack and Sam's reaction was completely normal and to not have any compunction about laughing in front of them.

A few seconds later, Daniel and Teal'c shared another look and this time it was Daniel that spoke. "So, just two days, uh-uh?"

"Yes, just two days." Jack answered.

"Ok, then," and then slowly he smiled and said, "Congratulations! I'm so happy for you guys." And he started forward and hugged Sam and then Jack. "How far along are you?" He asked as Teal'c also came forward with a smile and congratulated them.

"About six weeks, maybe a bit longer." Sam answered with a grin as she hugged Vala, who had come over with Cameron to add their congratulations.

For the next few minutes the room was full of laughs, congratulations and hugs as they all added their best wishes.

**AN3: **Short and sweet, I didn't make it longer becuase there is a lot of information that's coming up and I didn't want to lump it all together. Also, I didn't want you guys to wait for too long. I hope you liked it and please review!


	8. More surprises!

SG1 in Atlantis

**Disclaimer**: they don't belong to me, though I really wish they did. Neither does the whole concept of Atlantis or a city control mentally, I'm just playing with it.

**AN**: ok, this is a future fic, only three years but still in the future. As any of you who have read any of my fics know, I'm a shipper. So, here I'm making a couple of assumption that should really come as no surprise to anyone that has read my other fic: Sam and Jack are together and so are Tayla and John. Ok, that's it for author's note.

**AN2:** Sorry for the long delay, but I had a lot that I wanted to say in this chapter and I wasn't quite sure how to say it - I hope you like how it ended up. Plus, I also just recently moved to Florida, so I'd been very busy and tired and hadn't really had the time or the energy to write. hope you guys forgive me and that this chapter for worth the wait. I promise to try and not take so long next time. For those who like it, I'm about to write the next chapter of 'Encounters'. So, look for it, maybe it'd be out this weekend. And then'll come the next chapter of 'Te Amare.' Well, that's it for author's note. Please, please, please review and let me know what you think.

**Chapter 8: More surprises!  
**

Caught up in the moment, most of the group forgot that Melia was still standing to the side of the group until she too added her congratulations, "I am very happy for the two of you."

Jack looked back at her and said, "Thank you."

She could tell that he was thanking her more than just the congratulations. "You're welcome," she said with a smile. "Now, if I've answered all your questions, I'll be going."

"I got some questions," Sam said before Melia could finish her good-byes.

"Yes?"

"Both Jack and Charlie have the gene, does that mean that this new little one," and she put her hands on her stomach, "will also have it?"

"Yes, she'll have the same abilities as they, though hers will be more advanced." Milea answered with a smile.

"More advanced?" Asked Daniel.

"Yes. She represents the next step on your evolution."

"So Thor was right? Our kid might be able to help them with their problems?" Jack commented.

"Yes, Thor was right. This little one will be a very special little girl, as will be any other children you happen to have."

"Is that only because of Jack's gene or does Sam's intelligence also played a part?" Daniel asked, as always questioning everything.

"It is a combination of both factors, actually. And, of course, the fact that Sam blended with Jolinar."

"What does that have to do with it?" Sam asked, surprised.

"A lot, actually. You remembered how I said that there was something in the symbiote's genetic make up that allowed it to cure Jack when he came down with the plague?"

"Yes. You also said that if you'd have known about it you might have been able to do something with it." Sam answered as everyone else listened intently. The Atlantis crew members because they couldn't help their curiosity even though they knew they should really leave the room and give the O'Neills some privacy. Teal'c and Cameron stayed because anything that affected Sam (and in Teal'c's case, O'Neill) affected them. And Daniel and Vala stayed because Vala had also carried a symbiote and they wanted to know what effects that might have when they decide to have kids – yes, they were that serious.

"Yes, well it seems that it is the Naquadah in their genetic makeup that somehow strengthens our immune systems."

"Really? I guess that's not so surprising given how much you've relied on Naquadah yourselves for technology that it's interactive. So much close contact with it must have given you a natural affinity for it." Sam theorized.

"Exactly. The Naquadah in your system combined and strengthen Jack's Ancient gene; that plus your own enhanced abilities made the next step in human evolution possible. Not to mention that it made conception between you two possible." Melia explained.

"Hump," Jack said while exchanging a look with Sam. Neither one was sure how they felt about being responsible for the next evolution of mankind. It was flattering, but at the same time scary. Raising kids was hard enough without the added pressure of knowing they were the next step in the development of the whole darn race!

"You just said that the Naquadah in Sam's system made conception possible," Daniel said. "What exactly does that mean?"

Looking at Sam, Melia answered, "Just that you and Janet were right. The Naquadah in your system and the marker left by Jolinar _would_ have made conception with anyone else extremely rare. It was the Ancient gene in Jack that allowed it to occur as easily as it did. Of course that's only fair since Jack would have had as much trouble having a child with anyone else."

"What? What do you mean?" Asked Jack with a confused expression that was echoed by most everyone else in the room. "I already had a child with someone else."

"Yes, but remembered how much trouble Sara had carrying Charlie?" Melia asked and Jack had to nod his head. Sara had had a very hard time with Charlie, almost loosing him twice before the doctors admitted her into the hospital. "And that was before you went through everything you've been through in the last twelve or so years."

"Everything he's been through?" Cameron asked. Now, like Daniel, he wanted to know what impact their adventures might have on his ability to some day have kids. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"A lot." And looking at Jack, she asked, "Haven't you wondered why you've connected to the city so strongly and so fast, when everyone else with the gene just heard a buzz? Or why you don't look as if you've aged a day in the last few years?"

"I thought that I connected to the city because I had the strongest gene and I was your heir. Isn't that what you said?" Jack answered.

"Yes, and that's true so far as it goes. But the gene you carry and all of its corresponding abilities are latent. They have lain dormant for more than a millennia. If you'd have come to Atlantis twelve, ten years ago you'd have heard the same buzz that John and Carson heard. You would have eventually awoken the city and discovered all its mysteries, but it would have taken you longer, much longer than the half hour it just took you."

"Aye," Carson said. The first thing he's said since they've all come into the hologram room. "I've been wondering about that. I known that a previously unused part of our brains is interacting with the city and that we probably have some sort of," he paused to search for the right words and with a grimace and a wave of his hand, he settled for, "code in our DNA that instinctively lets us know how to use it. And I know we must have been born with it, which means that it has been dormant all this time. So how and why has it awaken now?"

"Well," John answered the question that was for Melia. "I thought that it was the city or the General that awoke it."

"Aye, the city probably awoke our abilities," Carson said waving his hand between himself and John. "But did it also awake it in the General? I'm not so sure that it did. I mean, how could it when the General awoke the city?"

And then something Melia said occurred to Daniel. "The Ancient downloads," he practically screamed.

"What about them?" Asked Cameron, as Sam nodded and Jack's confused expression started to change to one of comprehension.

"Yes," Melia said, smiling at Daniel. "You always were fast, Daniel. The two Ancient downloads that Jack received prepared him to interact with the city."

"How? And would it have prepared anyone that came into contact with it?" Asked Rodney, thinking he maybe should go look for one of those things if it's allowed him to 'hear' the city like John could.

"No, Rodney. It wouldn't have. Only some one with the gene would have been able to activate the depository. And even then, only Jack or someone from our direct line would have received the whole sum of our knowledge."

"Why?" This time the question came from Sam, whose curiosity had her so caught up in the story that she'd almost forgot her original concerns.

"Because the repository was programmed to download only the amount it deemed the person could safely received. And that would all depend on how strong the gene was in the person receiving it and which family she/he descended from. So, either John or Carson would have only received a fraction of the amount Jack received. But the depository recognized the strength and family line of Jack's gene. And it did as it had been programmed and gave him everything."

"Oh, lucky me," Jack said with a grimaced as he remembered his mind being taken over by the download.

"Actually, we were lucky." Daniel corrected him. "If you hadn't received the depository in its entirety then you wouldn't have made contact with the Asgard homeworld – and that led to Earth being included in the Protected Planets Treaty; and you wouldn't have been able to defeat Anubis and defend Earth; and we might not even have made it to Atlantis." With each point, Daniel's voice went up and then he looked at Melia and said, "That's the point, isn't it? Jack had to be part of SG1 or none of that would have happened."

"Yes," Melia agreed nodding her head, pleased that they were starting to connect the dots by themselves. "And Jack, you were never in any really danger."

"No really danger!" Sam exclaimed. "By the time he left for the Asgard Homeworld, there was almost nothing left of the Jack we knew. And let's not even talk about the three months he spent locked in ice in Antarctica the second time. If we hadn't found the Asgard, he could still be locked up down there." Sam was getting all work up as she remembered those horrible days when she hadn't known if she was ever going to see Jack alive. Jack reached out and hugged Sam when he saw how upset she was getting; he knew how upset she got whenever she remembered those times.

Elizabeth bit her lip and looked away from the scene, remembering how it had only been because of Sam's blackmail that she had allowed the mission to go looking for the Asgard and feeling guilty about it. She couldn't even imagine what Sam's life; how her own life would be like if the Thor hadn't revived Jack.

"But the point is that both times the Asgards helped Jack. The download made sure of it." Once again seeing everyone's puzzled expressions, she went on without waiting for the inevitable question. "As the Asgard told Jack the first time they removed the knowledge, imbedded within it was the location of their homeworld and his genetic make up made sure that he knew how to access that information."

"But that wasn't the only thing he got from it, was it lass?" Carson asked, wanting to hear the explanation of how a gene dormant for so long had suddenly become active.

"No," Melia answered looking at Carson. "The download did more than just rewrite its brain. It actually jumpstarted the gene, beginning a slow change at the cellular level."

"Wow, wow." Cried Jack alarmed at the very idea. "Change at the cellular level? But all our doctors checked me up and down and every way they knew how and nothing ever showed."

"That's because the changes were subtle, small and as good as Janet is, the equipment she had to work with wasn't sensitive enough to pick them up."

"What about the equipment here? Is that sensitive enough?" Carson asked eagerly, visions of all the test he could take and the discoveries he could make flashing in his head.

"Yes, they are." Melia said while Jack grumbled "yippee" under his breath. He just knew that the docs would now be on his case until he submitted to every test they could think of.

"Is that why the second time he exhibited more symptoms?" Daniel asked, remembering how Jack healed Bratac as he was dying.

"Yes. While the Asgards were able to remove the knowledge and halt the process, they could not reverse the changes that had already occurred. Thus, the second time he received the download, the changes continued to their natural conclusion." Melia explained.

"Natural Conclusion?" Sam asked. "And what exactly was that? Like I said, he ended up frozen in ice!"

"Sam, calm down." Jack said.

"Yes, that was because his system was overwhelmed and needed to shut down, giving it time to stabilize and assimilate all the changes that it had gone through." Milea said patiently; she understood why Sam reacted as she did. "By the time Thor was able to get to him, the only thing he could do was compressed the knowledge Jack had acquired to allow him to be awake while his subconscious absorbed it."

"But Thor told O'Neill that the knowledge had been removed from his brain." Teal'c objected.

"Yes, if he knew what was going on, why didn't he say something?" Jack asked, feeling a bit disappointed that his buddy had kept the information from him.

"Because it was not his place to say anything. Nor were you ready to hear it. Besides, the knowledge was compressed and you were not able to consciously access it, so in a way it was as good as removed." Melia explained.

"And whether the knowledge was removed or not, almost didn't matter by that time, did it?" Daniel asked. "I mean, by that time Jack had already changed and all that was needed was a bit of time for it to become apparent."

"Yes, you're right. By that time, the location of the knowledge itself was irrelevant."

"So, my original question stands," Cameron said. "Is General O'Neill an Ancient?"

"No, not quite." Melia answered with a small smile, well aware of how little Jack liked that possibility. "But he's as close as any other human, not ascended, has ever gotten. And certainly a lot closer than he was before he started traveling through the 'Gate."

"But what does all that have to do with whether or not the General has aged much in the last few years?" Cameron asked, remembering the second part of Melia's question.

"Just that as a result of all the changes his physiology has been strengthen even more and that has resulted in a drastically slow down of his aging."

"Well," Daniel said to that little announcement, "That doesn't seem fair."

With a huge shit-eating grin, Jack said, "As nice as this enhanced, longer life sound, what does that have to do with me not being able to have kids with anyone but Sam?" And at Sam's look he hastily added, "Not that I want to have kids with anyone _but_ Sam, you understand. I'm just curious."

With a grin of her own and sharing a knowing look with Sam, Melia answered, "Just as you passed on your gene to Charlie, you'll be passing these changes or enhancement on to your kids. And while you're still technically human, your DNA is different enough that any child you have would demand more than any normal human mohter could provide."

"But Sam . . .?" Jack started to ask, worried about Sam.

"But Sam is not a normal human mother." She said looking apologetically at Sam. "The changes triggered by her blending with Jolinar made her stronger, more resilient and flexible than a normal human woman."

"So, she'll be ok?" Jack asked, still anxious about Sam's health.

"Yes, she'll be just fine. Like I said, she's strong enough to accommodate the changes the baby will produce."

"Changes? You mean besides the usual ones?" At Melia's nod, she asked, "And when will they kick in?"

"They have already started," Melia answered.

"Really? Are you sure? Because I haven't felt anything. In fact, I've barely felt the normal pregnancy symptoms, now that I think about it." Sam mused.

"Yes, I'm sure. And the reason you've not noticed them is because Jack has been taking them into himself."

"What?" Daniel asked.

"I have?" Jack asked at the same time while Sam said, "What do you mean?"

"Exactly that. Jack has been helping you by relieving you of the symptoms and taking them himself. Why do you think that he collapse five weeks ago?"

"He what? He can do that? Well, he better stop that right now," Sam said glaring at Jack, while he just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know what the heck Melia was talking about. But if he somehow was making the pregnancy easier on Sam, there was no way on heaven or netu that he was going to stop.

"Yes, he can do that, but he does it unconsciously. I don't think he'd know how to stop." Melia said, knowing, as Sam did, by the look in Jack's eye that even if he did know he wouldn't be stopping any time soon. "Besides, you'll have enough to deal with later on, let him do his part. You'll be glad for it, believe me."

"Maybe, but I don't want him to get sick." Sam protested.

"The only reason he collapsed that time was because he wasn't taking care of himself. The long work hours and his rotten eating habits, things he has no problem dealing with regularly, meant that he did not have the reserves needed for the added stress. But now that he's taking better care of himself, he won't have any problems. He's more than strong enough to absorb the additional strain without any difficulties."

"You hear that, Jack?" Sam asked with a glare in her husband's direction. "You have to take better care of yourself if you want to help me. Because if you don't and you get sick that'll just mean that I'll worry more and then you won't really be helping me, will you?"

"Yes, dear." Jack said with a sigh, to the great amusement of all the guys present. All of whom received a glare from Jack for their troubles.

After tampering his amusement, Daniel said, "Wait a minute. Jack collapsed about five weeks ago; if they just found out that Sam is pregnant two days ago, how did Jack know to do whatever it is that he's been doing?" The last was said with a suspicious glare in Jack and Sam's direction.

"Like I said, Jack was not conscious that he was doing it." Melia said and having seen the suspicious glare, she added, "If they said they found out two days ago, then I'm sure that they found out two days ago."

"Um, ok," Daniel said. "But my question still stands, how did he or his unconscious mind know to do it?"

"That's simple. His unconscious mind knew because of the bond he has with Sam and with the baby." Melia explained.

"Bond," Asked Sam and Daniel at the same time while Jack got a very thoughtful look on his face. "What bond?"

Melia looked at them and asked, "Which bond would you like me to clarify?" She said it with a straight face but there was something in her eyes that reminded both Daniel and Sam of when Jack acts like a smart ass.

"The bond with Sam," Daniel said first, just as Sam was about to say the bond with the baby. But since she was curious about this bond too, she stayed quiet.

"Surely you have noted how close Jack and Sam are? How close they've always been? How they almost seem to be able to read each other's minds and often don't even need to speak to communicate?" At Daniel and Teal'c's nods, Melia continued. "You must have also noted that there's nothing one wouldn't do for the other and how they are unable to leave each other behind."

"Well, yes. But that's because they love each other. And frankly, that could also be said of any of us. There's nothing we wouldn't do for each other and we would never leave anyone behind." Daniel explained.

"Yes, the bond between SG-1, present and past, is uncommonly strong. But that's just it: you _wouldn't_ leave anyone behind. And while neither of them would leave you behind, they _couldn't_ leave each other. The few times they've been forced to do it, they've moved heaven and earth to get the other back because they literally left a part of themselves behind and they weren't complete until it was back."

At that pronouncement, silence once again descended on the group. Most of them were in awe that two people could share such a deep bond, while the others privately reflected that somehow they've always known it existed. And the three couples just agreed with the sentiment Melia was expressing; each having had to live through such situations enough times to know the truth of it.

Uncharacteristically, it was Teal'c who spoke first. "I have always known that O'Neill and Col. O'Neill share a strong bond between them. Unlike Daniel Jackson, I always suspected it was more than just the bond of two people in love."

Daniel looked at Tea'c as if he wanted to say something, but there was really nothing to say. Despite Daniel's fondness for legends and all things Ancients and all of the weird things he'd seen over the past twelve plus years, Daniel was surprisingly resistant to believe anything 'mystic'. For Daniel everything had to have a rational, logical, scientific reason; legends were interesting but they invariably led him to the real truth behind a phenomenon. This was true even after he;d ascended; but then again, having ascended might have just reinforced his need for a scientific study. So, Teal'c was right. Daniel had ascribed the bond between Jack and Sam as their being in love and have never put any credit in Teal'c's theory that there was more to their union than just plain, old variety love.

"You're right, Teal'c. Jack and Sam are soul mates and share a bond that few beings are lucky enough to share. It is extremely powerful and transcends time and space." Seeing the look on everyone's faces, she went on to explain. "This bond is not what you normally refer to when you talk of soul mates. Theirs is the real thing, not the weaker version humans experienced."

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked. "That humans are incapable of having this bond? If so, why do they have it? Just because the General is your heir?"

"I mean that while humans are certainly capable of finding their soul mates they are not usually capable of forming the bond Sam and Jack have. The bond is a result of the strength of their love and their devotion for one another; however, it also requires a psychic connection that most humans are just not capable of. It is actually the type of bond that we, Lanteans, shared with our loved ones." Melia explained .

"So, their bond is the result of Jack being your heir?" Cameron asked to clarify.

"Yes. But like I said, weaker versions of it, while rare, have been known to occur." After she said that, she looked at Daniel and Vala. "And of course, while Jack is our direct descendant, he is not the only descendant of our race. And everyone of them is capable of forming the same bond, specially if their gene is jump-started." And while she didn't need to do it, she looked right at John and Teyla when she said it.

"So," Daniel said after a few seconds of silence while everyone digested that tiny bit of information. "Jack and Sam are soul mates and share a bond that allows them to do what exactly?"

"To be aware of each other." Melia answered. "It also allows them to sense what the other one needs, or if he/she is in pain. It also makes lying to each other extremely hard. In full Lanteans, it also created a deeper, more intimate telepathic connection. But that won't be the case here, at least not with Jack and Sam."

"UH," said Daniel.

"At least not between him and me? With whom else could Jack have a telepathic connection?" Sam asked a bit put off.

"With the baby," the answer came from Jack and Melia just smiled and nodded her head.

Sam turned to looked at him and for a few seconds the only thing she could do was close and open her mouth. Until finally, she was able to say, "With the baby? What do you mean? You've been communicating with the baby and you haven't told me?" By her tone of voice, everyone knew that the answer better be no.

"Yes," Jack answered and then amended it with, "I mean no. I mean . . ." He took a big breath and started from the beginning. "I think I might have felt the baby from the beginning. But, like Melia said, it was totally unconscious. I wasn't aware of it. No, that's not quite right, either." And he shook his head at his inability to explain himself. "Ok, see. Somehow, I've always been aware of the baby. It was the same with Charlie. In some part of me, I was aware of him. I knew I was aware of it, but at the same time I wasn't. Do you see what I mean?" At everyone's negative shake of heads, he sighed and said, "It's like I've always been aware of Sam. I know when she enters a room, whether I see her entered or not, I know the exact minute she comes in. And I know when she's hungry or sleepy or just plain tire. I've always known it." 

"And you've never thought that was a bit weird?" Daniel asked.

"No, because I've always felt it, just like I've felt or known other things. Like all those times I told you not to touch anything, I knew that something bad was going to happen but you never listen to me. Or like you know, when you just sometimes know the phone is going to ring. I've always just known things," he repeated with a shrug. "So, when I met Sam and started to feel her, no, I didn't think it weird."

"I know what you mean," Sam said. "I've always felt you too. And I guess I can also feel the baby, but she's inside me. I just thought it was normal."

"Yeah, like I said I also felt Charlie so I didn't really think anything of it. And like I said, it is unconscious. I just feel it, it's normal. I really never thought about it."

"So, you're not actually talking to the baby?" Daniel asked.

"No, I just feel her," Jack answered before going quiet for a while. He then smiled and said, "Now that I know about it, it's somehow stronger."

"Yes," Melia nodded. "Now that you consciously look for it, it'll become stronger. And once the baby develops a bit more, you'll be able to talk to her."

"I will?" Jack asked delighted with the idea.

"Yes, like I said she's more developed. Her telepathic abilities will be greater and since you're in contact with Atlantis your telepathic abilities will be developed enough to connect with her."

"Sweet!" Jack said with a huge smile, the thought that he'll be able to converse with his unborn child was fascinating.

"Oh, great." Sam groused. "Not only does he get to hear the city, but he'll also get to talk to our baby before I even get to see her. That is so not fair."

Melia laughed and said, "Don't worry Sam. You'll be able to talk to her, too. And soon you'll hear the city too. Not as clear or as completely as Jack, but good enough."

"I will?" Sam asked. "But how? I don't have the Ancient gene."

"You don't, but your child does. And one of those changes I mentioned is the partial re-writing of your DNA to allow for better communication between mother and child. And the side benefit will be that after you give birth you'll retain the change and the partial Ancient gene. It won't be near as strong as Jack's or even Carson's, but it will allow you to access Ancient technology, the city and will be enough to allow you to connect with both Jack and the baby telepathically."

Sam was wide eye as she heard Melia's explanation and then she grin one of the biggest grins Jack had ever seen and said, "Sweet!" Clearly the idea of communicating with her unborn child was as exiting to Sam as it was to Jack. Not to mention the fact that she'll be able to really study the Ancient's technology without having to call Jack.

Yeah, she couldn't wait for those changes! She just had to make sure that Jack was well rested and well fed so that he could keep taking on the symptoms, she thought with a smirk.


	9. Final Revelations

SG1 in Atlantis

**Disclaimer**: they don't belong to me, though I really wish they did. Neither does the whole concept of Atlantis or a city control mentally, I'm just playing with it.

**AN**: ok, this is a future fic, only three years but still in the future. As any of you who have read any of my fics know, I'm a shipper. So, here I'm making a couple of assumption that should really come as no surprise to anyone that has read my other fic: Sam and Jack are together and so are Tayla and John. Ok, that's it for author's note.

**A/N2: **Sorry for the long wait but I wasn't really sure where to go with this story and then I got inspired to write some new ones. But I've had some request to continue with it so here it is. Hope you like it! Please review; it does inspire one to keep writing. Oh, one thing, I am making some assumptions in this chapter about a historical event. I'm not sure if it's true or not. I sort of remember reading something along the lines of what I've written but I'm not a hundred percent sure. I'm just mentioning this here so that you guys know that these are my assumptions and not necessarily based on facts. Don't get all upset if I'm wrong! It's fiction!

**Chapter 9: Final Revelations**

While Sam pondered all the ways she was going to be using her new abilities, Teyla had something else in mind. "Will having their gene jumpstarted," she began to ask, and everyone turned to look at her since it was the first time she'd spoken up. "mean that John and Caron will also be capable of developing telepathic connections?"

Melia looked over at her and with a soft smile considered her and then decided she had as much a right to the answer as the others. "To some extent, yes. It would also depend on whether the other party had the potential for telepathic contact. And of course, they're already in telepathic contact with each other."

"But lass," Carson chimed in. "our connection is limited to when we're using the city link, right?" He did not like the idea that his mind would be permanently link to other people.

"You're right, Carson," Melia answered to the good doctor's relief.

Relief that John quickly took away, "But, since we're always link to the city unless we're off-world, I guess you'll just have to get use to me wondering in whenever I have a question, eh Carson?" He asked with a smirk and earned himself a slight punch from Teyla.

"It doesn't work like that, John" Melia admonished him. "You know that. Carson's, and anyone else's mind, is completely safe. The only thing you can do is knock on the 'portal' to his mind. He is perfectly capable and able to ignore you if he so chooses."

"Aye," Carson nodded with a smirk of his own. "And I've certainly got enough practice doing that."

"Don't we all?" Snorted Rodney.

"Will having their gene jumpstarted give them any other abilities, aside from this increased sensitivity to the city?" Teyla wanted to know.

"No," Melia denied. "Aside from sensing the city and the increase potential for telepathic contact, the only thing jumpstarting their gene will do is make their interactions with the city easier."

"Easier?" Rodney couldn't help snorting again. "What?" He asked when Elizabeth glared at him. "Using the city's technology has never been a chore to him." He pointed at John.

"He's right," John confirmed, looking at Melia. "Interacting with Atlantis and all of it technology has always been . . . well, as easy as breathing, really. It has never taken any special effort, except thinking about it."

"It hasn't?" Melia asked as she stepped closer and examined John minutely. John felt like she was looking into his soul and finding everything there was to know about him. "No, of course it hasn't," she muttered. "I'm sorry. I was mistaken." She admitted with a small smile.

"Mistaken? I didn't think Ancient could make mistakes." Vala said in an aside to Daniel who just shushed her.

"Mistaken? How?" Teyla asked as John seemed to be unable to break the spell Melia's eyes had cast over him.

"About his lineage," Melia answered as she turned to look at her.

"His lineage?" Rodney asked, he just knew where this was going. "Don't tell me he's your heir too?"

"No," Melia answered with a smile Rodney's way. "There's only one heir. But," she continued, halting Rodney's smile. "John is the direct descendant of Laril." She paused and with a charming smile added, "My cousin and a member of one of the oldest houses of Atlantis."

"So, what?" Asked Rodney. "Are you telling us he's royalty?" He ignored the smirk John was throwing his way.

Melia inclined her head in assent. "Laril's family has always been next in line to take over if for some reason we couldn't." She paused for a minute and then added, "In fact, they've done just that a few times when the last of our line was too young to take over."

A few moments of silence followed that announcement, before Daniel commented, "I guess that would make John the Duke to Jack's King."

"I am no king," Jack protested.

"No, you are not," Melia agreed. "But you are a leader. So, Daniel's analogy is not that far off."

"So," John couldn't resist saying. "I guess we're family, uh, sir?"

"Guess so," Jack answered, knowing that the levity was John's way of getting a little time to deal with all the revelations.

"Wait a minute," Rodney said putting his hands up as if to halt traffic. "If he's the descendant of one of the ruling families, does that mean he would have gotten the same information from the depository as General O'Neill? And why didn't he wake the city further?"

"No, he would not get everything Jack received but he would have gotten most of it. As for the city, well, it's the same as the depository, they were both set to activate to a specific set of genes."

"Yes, yes. I know." Rodney interrupted. "But if they are family, aren't they genes very close to identical? Shouldn't the city have reacted? Especially if the city was programmed to accept John's family as the ruling one if yours wasn't around?"

"Yes, and don't forget that the city did react," Melia explained patiently. When she saw the skeptical looks she turned to John and asked, "Were you among the first to come through?"

"Yes." He admitted.

"As I thought," Melia nodded and then turned to look at the rest of the group. "It was because of him that the city reacted at all. Without him in your expedition, you wouldn't have had as much access as you do. But the city was waiting for Jack; given time John would have awaken it more and more. He, however, wouldn't have awakened it completely until the city received proof that Jack didn't exist and John was therefore the next in line. The same was true for the download, without prove that Jack was no more, John wouldn't have acquired everything."

Another silence followed that explanation, and then Carson asked something that had been bothering him for a while. "Is everyone with the gene your direct descent, lass?"

Melia smiled at Carson and nodded. "Yes."

"But we're all descendants from different families?" At Melia's nod, he continued with his line of thinking. "Is it a coincidence that the two people with the strongest gene are the descendants of two ruling houses? Or was there something in your families' lineage that has survived time and ensured that strength?"

"No, it isn't really a coincidence." She began to answer. "When we went back to Earth, we knew that we really couldn't interfere with the development of human nature. To that end, most of us settled on remote on remote edges of the planet. Some of us, however, mingled with the most advanced society of the era: the Greeks, Romans, Brits, Aztecs and Incas. It just happened that most of those that mixed with them were of the ruling families, with a few exceptions here and there.

But we were all very conscious of the need to keep at the edge of the development and kept any intimate contact to a minimum. That isolationist attitude was maintained for years, so that even later generations kept themselves out of the mainstream. There were some that intermingle more than others and the gene was thus diffused but for the most part, especially for the ruling families, the gene has come down through time relatively pure."

Carson nodded at the answer and it was Elizabeth that asked the next question. "You said that the gene was responsible for the General's stronger than average physical and mental state. Can we assume that the same is true for John and Carson?"

"Yes," Melia answered.

Elizabeth nodded and shared a glance with Teyla and Rodney said, "Well, I guess that explains how John's survived this long."

"Ha, ha," said John to Rodney, but privately he had to agree that the gene might be a good explanation for why he's beaten the odds so many times when so many others had not.

"Tell me," Elizabeth continued, ignoring John and Rodney and drawing a smile from Sam, who knew how that was like. "Can the gene also be responsible for others characteristics?"

"What do you mean?" Melia asked, though she had a good idea where Elizabeth was going with this line of thinking.

"Well, it just seemed to me that John and General O'Neill have a lot in common. I was just wondering if maybe that was due to the gene and not their cantankerous nature."

Identical "Hey!" could be heard from two.

"Well, it's true," Elizabeth said as she looked at the two men in question with an innocent smile. "You can't deny that you two are a lot alike."

"Elizabeth is right," Teyla said. "I don't know General O'Neill very well, but from what I've heard and seen, he shares the same weird sense of humor as John."

"If you mean a somewhat childish view of what's funny, then you're right," was Sam's contribution to the conversation.

Another round of "Heys" could be heard, this time both men directed at the women in their lives.

"Is John a sarcastic, stubborn soldier-type personality with a penchant for blowing everything up?"

At Rodney's "Hell, yes!" Everyone but the two being discussed laughed.

As the laughter died down, Elizabeth said, "Seriously, those two have a lot in common."

Teyla nodded again and said, "They're both courageous and extremely protective of those they consider their responsibility. Neither is afraid to risk their life in a just cause."

Sam nodded and continued, "They're also both loyal and honest men with great leadership and who inspire others to follow them to the ends of the Earth."

Daniel, Cam and even Rodney, nodded at that; they've all experience that first hand. And Daniel added, "They're also incredibly resourceful and will not admit defeat no matter how hopeless the situation looks. Some might call it optimism but I think it's just their stubbornness that won't let them accept any outcome but the one they want."

By this time both Jack and John looked incredibly uncomfortable and Elizabeth couldn't resist adding, "They're also extremely modest and will not accept credit for the incredible feats they've accomplished."

Rodney looked from John and Jack, considered them for a minute and after a slight hesitation added, "And if the General here is anything like John, then they both like to downplay their intelligence and play the dumb-ass soldier when in reality they understand much more than they'll ever admit."

That was a quite an admission from the guy who considered himself the smartest person in any galaxy. It drew shocked expressions from everyone present except John, Teyla and Elizabeth who knew deep inside (really, really deep to be sure), Rodney was a sensitive guy.

Jack was one of the first to recover from the shock and he cleared his throat before saying, "Ok, that's really nice you guys. But lots of persons have those same characteristics."

Melia nodded and finally answered them, "Jack is right. Most humans share those characteristics on different levels." But before John and Jack could relax, she went on. "However, it is also true that just as the gene strengthens the mental and physical attributes; it also strengthened those characteristics. People with the gene have generally been leaders or innovators that have furthered human development. But there are no guarantees when it comes to human nature and some of our descendants have committed some of the worst atrocities in the history of your planet."

Daniel looked at her with wide eyes and, as it was his wont, asked, "Like who?"

"Hitler for once," Melia started to answered only to be interrupted by Rodney.

"Hitler!" He spurted. "But he was short and . . . and looked nothing like these guys!"

Melia looked at Rodney and with an amused smile said, "Jack and John like somewhat alike not because they share the gene but because the families they descend from were related. We had as much differences in our appearance as you do and those that descendend from different houses do not necessarily look alike."

Daniel shook his head and said, "Whatever," waving away the whole matter of physical appearance. "What I would like to know is if he was your descendant why you didn't do something to stop him."

"You know that we can't interfere in your development," Melia started to answered but Daniel wasn't having that.

"Ordinarily, maybe. But if he was your descendant didn't you have some responsibility for his actions? Especially if he, as you're hinting, used your gifts to get as far as he did."

"Daniel, we can't interfere with your free will." She repeated.

"B--l-S--t!" He exclaimed. "You interfere all the time! Maybe not directly but you manage to stop things you don't want to happen when it suits you."

"And who said we didn't this time?" She asked tilting her head to the side.

"Uh?" Daniel asked, having effectively had the wind taken out of his sails. "What are you saying?"

"I'm not saying anything Daniel," She paused and then added, "Except to agree with you that we've been known to stop events when we deem appropriate."

"No one really knows what happened to him, you know?" Rodney said as he looked around at everyone. "It was always assumed that he died in one of the allies' bomb strikes. But his body was never really recovered."

That created another silence as they all tried to absorb the latest bombshell and while they would all have like some confirmation they could tell by Melia's face that she had said all she was going to said on the subject.

"Um," Daniel said as he suddenly thought of something, "How come you're telling us all of this? Won't you get into trouble? I mean, it's not like you guys are all that big on communication. Usually, getting you to tell us something is like pulling teeth form a rabid dog," he ignore the looks that expression got him. "And now, all of the sudden you're this big fountain of knowledge. Why? Couldn't this be considered interfering, too?"

Jack nodded his head as he looked at Daniel with a small smile of pride. He had started to gotten over the shock of everything he'd heard and had begun to wonder the same thing; he had not, however, expected Daniel to do so. He had always been the one to get lost in the wonder of discovery and missing the chance that the other side might have an ulterior motive.

"No, not really. I'm only telling things that concern you – especially Jack and John. It's family information that they're entitled to know."

"Oh, please!" Jack said with a sneer. "This is nothing knew. You've known all about it for years and you just now telling us?"

"We might have known about it," Melia said with the same calmness she'd had greeted each of Jack's previous explosions. "But this is the first you're hearing of it."

"Not everything is new," Sam countered. "We've known that Jack and John had the gene for a while now. We've also know, thanks to Thor, that Jack is considered to be the next step in our evolution."

"Yes, but you didn't know he could awake Atlantis or that he was our heir."

"You're splitting hairs again." Jack argued. "We didn't know those things because we hadn't come to Atlantis yet and there was no way we could have."

"Exactly," Melia said in a tone of voice that suggested Jack had proven the point for her.

Jack just shook his head and threw his hand into the air. He turned to Daniel and made a face as if to say 'you deal with her, because I can't.'

Daniel just looked at her, silently demanding a better explanation.

Melia just insisted, "Seriously, I haven't said anything that Jack and John wouldn't have discovered by themselves given a bit of time. I just hurried things along; making them somewhat easier. Just like I've also tried to do."

But no one was really buying it. They've come a long way and were no longer the naïve group of people that believe everything a 'more advance' being told them just because a 'more advance' being was the one telling it – not that Jack had ever done that, really.

At the closed faces confronting her, Melia sighed and after closing her eyes for a minute finally said in a voice that said she'd rather not said anything. "After recent events, it's been decided that it might be a better policy if we told you things that might help you in defending yourselves – when," she added when she saw Daniel opened his mouth to protest. "It won't drastically change your future and you're already on the path to discovering them for yourselves."

That took them aback for a while, this time Sam was the first to recover. "Recent events? Defend ourselves? What do you many by that?" She paused to look at her team and husband to see if they were thinking the same thing she was; but the look on their faces, they were. "We defeated the Ori" She stated and then in a hesitant voice, "didn't we?"

"The Ori can't ever really be defeated, not by you. They're ascended beings, you can't kill them." Melia stated in a clear voice to the horror of everyone present. When she saw the reaction her words had produced, she added, "But you have managed to stop them for the time being. They are, however, looking for ways to go back and finally conquer your galaxy." She stopped and turned to look at the Atlantis team. "And this one, if they were to find out about it."

Despite the worrisome news he had just heard, Rodney couldn't help but ask with a hint of disdain in his voice, "How is it that they don't know about it already, if they are such powerful, all-knowing beings?"

Melia turned to look at him with a smile and for the first time, Rodney could see the tremendous power she wielded. "They are not the only powerful, all-knowing beings in the universe and we're older than they." She then turned back to SG1 and Jack and continued, "You need to be prepared for when they make it back."

"Is it a sure thing that they'll make it back?" Cam asked; they had just fought a prolonged war and he really didn't want to believe that it wasn't over yet.

"Yes, it is." Melia answered firmly looking him in the eye. "Maybe not in your life time but they will be back. I thought you'd like to leave some sort of protection for your descendants."

That brought yet another silence as they digested that little gem. They weren't really sure how to feel about it; they were relieved that the threat wasn't imminent but they also didn't like the idea that their kids or grandkids would have to deal with the same threat they just dealt with. Most of the motivation for the fight for all of them was to leave a better world to their kids; to know they might not be able to do that was disquieting to say the least.

"So, you're saying that you're telling us all this because sooner or later the Ori are going to come back but Jack and John might find something here in Atlantis that will help us deal with them?" Daniel asked to clarify things.

Melia nodded and added, "Yes, but remember that they are not the only threat you face."

"You mean the Wraiths?" Teyla asked. "Now that the city is awake, we might find something that will help us in our fight with them?"

"Yes." Was the simple answer.

"But how can that be?" Rodney asked.

And John continued with the thought, "How can anything here help us when you yourselves, who knew the city inside and out, couldn't defeat them and had to go back to the Milky Way to escape?"

"Because you are not us."

"Well, we _know_ that," Rodney snapped. "That doesn't answer the question."

"Rodney," Elizabeth admonished him but Melia didn't seem unduly disturbed.

"The fact of the matter is that in our arrogance we at first did not take the threat they represented seriously enough. And by the time we did, it was too late. They outnumbered us 20 to 1 by then and their technology rivaled our own." She paused to think on those days and then went on in a thoughtful tone. "It had been a long, long time since we had encountered an enemy that presented us with a challenge and by that time we no longer knew how to confront that situation. But you, you don't have that problem."

Rodney snorted and said, "I don't know whether you've noticed this or not, but we're outnumbered as bad as you were, if not worse."

Melia shook her head. "No, you're not. Not only has your expedition grown in the last three years and I have no doubt it'll keep growing, but you have also gone out there and made friends and allies thus increasing your numbers; that is something we never bother to do. Because while you consider the people you meet in other planets potential allies, we saw them as our children and did not conceive that they could help us. We tried to take care of the Wraith by ourselves, in an effort to protect those we saw as weaker than us." Seeing the reactions that statement brought, she admitted, "That might have been a mistake, but it was one of many. And in the end the people we tried to protect were the ones to suffer the most." She added with a sad smile, looking at Teyla.

"That spirit of cooperation is one of your greatest strengths. As is the fact that while you refuse to admit defeat, you know that it is a possible outcome. You know that there are no guarantees in life; that you have to fight for what you want." She paused and looked around the room before continuing, "And while you might share our curiosity and even our arrogance to some extent, you still know what it is to have to fight for survival. By the time we encountered the Wraith, we had forgotten how. The successes you have had have not erased that knowledge from your people yet, the arrogance you're acquired has not yet overcome that basic survival instinct as it had our own.

That is why you'll defeat the Wraith, because not only do you know that you have to fight them but because you know _how_ to fight them. You know that it might mean some of you will have to sacrifice that which you hold most dear and you're willing to make that sacrifice. You know the fight will demand that you do your best and it'll push you beyond places you've ever been before."

She paused again and with a shake of her head admitted something she'd just realized. "As advanced as we were and as close to ascension as we were by that time, we were constrained by limits in a way you are not. Or maybe _because_ we were so close to ascension, we placed limits on ourselves that you don't. I don't know; what I do know is that you now have all the tools that you'll need to accomplish what we couldn't and stop the Wraith and the Ori."

With one last look around and a lingering one at Jack, she smiled one last time, said, "Good luck, my children." And vanished from the room, leaving complete silence in her wake.


	10. Exams and Dinner

SG1 in Atlantis

**Disclaimer**: they don't belong to me, though I really wish they did. Neither does the whole concept of Atlantis or a city control mentally, I'm just playing with it.

**AN**: ok, this is a future fic, only three years but still in the future. As any of you who have read any of my fics know, I'm a shipper. So, here I'm making a couple of assumption that should really come as no surprise to anyone that has read my other fic: Sam and Jack are together and so are Tayla and John. Ok, that's it for author's note.

**AN2:** Again, sorry for the delay, though I don't think it's been as long as before. This is a bit longer that the ohter chapters, though not by much. I hope you like it and please review.

**Chapter 10: Exams and Dinner**

The silence was finally broken by Rodney, who rubbed his hands and said in a chipper voice, "Well, I guess we have a lot of work to do so we better get started."

"Yes, it's a lot of information we'd have to go through," John added.

"Since it seems only Jack, John and Carson can do the actual research in the city, we better think of someway we can also help out," added Elizabeth.

"It might be best if we divide the city into sections, that way we won't work at cross purposes," Jack advised as they all move to leave the room.

One good thing about working with people that were utter professionals was that they were always ready to get things done, regardless of what surprises they've been dealt. In Sam's opinion, that was also the one bad thing about working with utter professionals.

"Hold it!" She cried standing in front of Jack and stopping him with a hand on his chest. "You're not going anywhere, unless it be the infirmary or maybe to have a look around. You're certainly not going to go off and start to work." She decreed.

"Sam," Jack began to protest but Sam didn't let him.

"No, don't you Sam me," Sam stopped him. "We're here for you to recuperate and that it's exactly what you're going to do."

"Sam," Rodney said. "He's the one that seems to have the most control over things. We need him to help us with the research. We have to find what ever it is that can help us with the Ori and the Wraith. It's important."

"I know it's important," Sam said impatiently. "But so it's his health and frankly that comes first."

"Come on, Sam," Jack tried to cajole her. "You heard Melia. I'm not really sick just a bit run down. I'll be as good as new soon."

"Yes, but you need to rest and have the proper nutrition before that happens. And until you get a clean bill of health you're not doing anything more strenuous that walking and talking."

"Sam," Mitchell said. "The Ori," but Sam didn't let him finish either.

"The Ori are not a threat at this time, Mitchell. They might be at a later date but I think we have enough time for Jack to really recuperate. And as for the Wraith," she added as she saw Rodney and John opened their mouths to protest. "You've been able to hold them off for this many years, I sincerely doubt that Jack taking a few days to rest and relax will make that much of a difference. And anyway," she added as she saw that they weren't really convinced. "John and Carson can begin to do the research. And since John is the second heir," she said for a lack of a better term. "I'm sure he'll be able to get anywhere you need to."

They didn't really like it, especially Jack, but they had no other choice but to nod their heads in agreement. What could they say after all? Everything she'd said was true.

"And don't worry," she turned and told Elizabeth. "I'm sure that we could get permission to stay here indefinitely after our vacation is over. With the Ori gone, there is no immediate threat back home and looking for the way to stop them and the Wraith for good is more than a good enough reason to be posted here for as long as needed."

Jack nodded his agreement, he'd already thought about it. "Sam's right. I won't have any problem getting our transfers to Atlantis." Jack also privately thought that it might be a good idea if Sam spent her pregnancy in Atlantis; despite the threat of the Wraith, something told him that it'd be the best place for her. Not only wouldn't she have to go off-world but he somehow knew that the city would look out for her.

"There you guys are," everyone turned to the door and there stood Dr. Janet Frazier. "I'd wonder where you all disappeared to."

"Jan," Vala who was closer to the door said as she walked over and put her arm around Janet's. "You won't believe everything that's been going on. Turns out that Jack is like the king of Atlantis or something . . ."

Jack looked at Sam and rolled his eyes, he then looked at Daniel but Daniel just shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'what can I don?', so he just sighed and let her go on as she led Janet out of the room.

Jack looked at Daniel again, but he just shrugged again and turned to follow the women out. With a shake of his head, Jack put his hand on Sam's back and started to lead her out but she stopped and turned to look at Carson, who was a bit behind.

"Dr. Beckett, would it be ok for you to see us now?" She asked him as Jack grimaced at the thought of more tests.

"That'd be fine, lass." Carson answered cheerfully, ignoring the General's response. He was, after all, used to how much the big, macho, military types reverted back to children whenever faced with needles and medical tests. "We could also start some of the tests I'd like to do to study the ATA gene." He turned and stopped John, just as he was about to leave the room. "Colonel, I expect you in the infirmary as soon as possible."

John had the same grimace as Jack as he nodded to Carson. "I'll be there as soon as I'm done with some paper work."

Since everyone present knew John dislike paperwork as much as Jack did, Carson put on his stern face and said, "I expect you in the infirmary within the hour, Colonel. Don't make me have to go look for you."

John nodded again but something in his face made Jack said, "Colonel, be in the infirmary in thirty minutes. That's an order." If he was going to suffer, he wasn't going to suffer alone, Jack thought.

John looked back at Jack and something much of his thoughts must have shown in his eyes, because John sighed and nodded, "Aye, sir."

With a last nod, he left the room with his team behind him. "Thank you, General." Carson said. "It'd take me days to get him to the infirmary otherwise."

"No problem," Jack answered.

"Well, I'll see you there soon?"

"As soon as we've settled in, we'll be there," Sam answered.

With a final nod, Carson left too.

Jack turned to Sam and with a wave of his arm motioned her forward but she just looked at him with her arms crossed and one toe tapping. "What?" He asked with his most innocent expression.

"Don't give that look," she answered. "You know very well what. I don't want you doing anything about his situation right now."

"I'm not," he protested, eyes wide.

"Really?" She asked, disbelief dripping from the words. "You're telling me that you're not, right now, exploring every nook and cranny you can find in this mental network," the last was said with her arms waving around as if to encompass that network, "of yours?"

Jack started to deny it, but she stopped him. "Please, don't lie to me. I may not be privy to this network, yet, but I do know how your mind works. And I know that you're all over that place."

Jack opened his mouth to speak but then thought better of saying whatever it was that had been in his mind and with a shake of his head, admitted, "Come on, Sam. This is important, you know that. If I could find something that can help us win this war with the Wraith, the Atlantis people can finally go back to exploring. And we need to find something that will stop the Ori the next time they want to show their faces back here." His mouth thinned and his eyes went flat as he continued, "I do not want any of our children to have to fight them later on."

Sam sighed and said in a softer tone of voice, "I know Jack and I don't want that either. And I'd like nothing more than for you to find a weapon that can stop the Wraith; I'll love an opportunity to examined it," she flashed a quick grin, but promptly went back to serious. "But none of that would mean much of anything if something were to happen to you."

"Come on, Sam," he said again and his tone was more irritated than before. "I'm fine. And you heard Melia, I'm not really sick; I'm just helping you carrying the baby."

"Yes, I heard her. I also heard that you had to recuperate because you had been spending much more energy that you were replacing. Jack, I love that you can help me with this pregnancy and I know how much it means to you that can help, but don't you see Jack? You won't help anyone, least of all me, if you don't take proper care of yourself. All I'm asking is that you take a couple of days to rest and relax and then you can do whatever you want. I mean, weren't you the one that was always telling me to get a life? Well, sir, I went and got one and now I want to spend a couple of days with the someone I got that life with. What do you say? Two days with just the two of us."

Jack looked into her eyes and knew he could never deny her anything that was really important to her and what she was asking was not unreasonable, after all. He gave a long suffering sigh and said, "Well, I guess that that'll be ok."

"Oh, you guess, do you?" Sam asked and punched him lightly on the arm.

"Ouch," Jack said as he rubbed his arm. "You better be careful; I'm still recuperating, you know?"

Sam glared at him for a moment and then gave in and grinned. "Oh, come on, you clown. Let's get settle in before going to find Dr. Beckett."

Jack laughed, put his arms around her shoulders and led her from the room.

----------------------------------------

A few hours later, after having been subjected to some endless medical exams - which in his opinion, both Carson and Janet had enjoyed way too much, Jack led Sam into the commissary for some dinner. They looked around when they entered it and spotted the rest of the team plus Colonel's Sheppard's team in a table together. Without having to talk about it, they headed there.

"Hello, kids," Jack greeted the people at the table as he pulled the chair out for Sam. As Sam sat and the others gave a variation of 'hello', Cam and John got up and said, 'sir."

Jack waved them down and said, "At ease, kids. I'm on leave, remember?" He then leaned down to give her a kiss on the cheek and said, "I'll be right back."

"Ok," she said. As he walked away from the table, she turned around and called out, "Hey, Jack. You think you could grab me some grapes and maybe some peaches. I think they would go great with the pot roast. Oh, and see if they have some pickles and chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce."

Jack nodded and turned quickly to hide his grimace at the odd combination of foods. The others in the table looked at each other and either shuddered or winced but all smoothed their faces when she turned back to face the table.

"So," she began as she looked around and settled her gaze on the rest of her team. "Has everyone settled in ok?"

"Yes," Daniel answered as he put his glass of soda down. "You should see the view from our bedroom. It's amazing."

Sam smiled at his enthusiasm as Cameron and Teal'c answered. And soon they were all comparing notes on their bedrooms and what they've seen of the city. Jack got back with both of their dinners and sat down next to Sam.

"And you should see the view from the balconies." Vala was saying. "The view of the sunset was so amazing and romantic." She finished with a sigh as she leaned her head briefly on Daniel's shoulder. "Did you get a chance to see any of the balconies, yet?"

"No," Jack answered a bit grumpily. "We haven't really seen anything of the city except the control and holo room, our bedroom and the infirmary. The doc's had me there all afternoon. They just let me out a few moments ago."

"That long?" Daniel asked surprised. "I thought it was just a check up?"

"It started with that," Sam explained as Jack was too busy making faces to answer. "But then Carson and Janet started on the tests they wanted to run to determine whether and how the ATA gene is changing."

"That's right." Daniel nodded. "But I thought they'd wait a bit on that. Maybe do some more research."

"Yeah, right." John scoffed. "Like Carson needs time to do more research into the gene thing. That's been his pet project since we got to this city. And every time he finds something new, he comes up with more tests he just had to run. Though, I have to admit today was one of longest session in a while."

"Did they find anything new?" Cameron asked as he finished his dinner.

"Don't know." Jack answered with a shrug. "Maybe. They seemed to be a bit excited there, at the end. But they were talking about all this medical stuff; frankly I didn't understand heads or tails of it."

Daniel looked at Sam, knowing that Jack often exaggerated his lack of knowledge, to see if she was better informed but she shook her head. "It was all pretty technical stuff. I'm sure they'll let us know as soon as they can."

"What I can't believe," Cam began as he pushed his tray away and leaned back in his chair. "Is how you could have lived here for so long and not notice that a city was invading you brain."

"Because it's not like that," John protested. "Atlantis was never invading my brain."

"Ok," Cam acknowledged but went on. "Still, you have a city in your head even if it is not invading it, how can you not notice it?"

"Because it has never been as strong as it got when the General arrived. And besides, it wasn't like I didn't notice it, I did but it's like the hum of the fridge or the AC – you know it's there and if you pay attention you hear it but most of the time, it just gets lost in the background." With a shrug, he added, "I just got used to it, I guess, so I rarely noticed it."

"Yeah well," Ronon said as he worked through the remaining plates on his tray. "You might have gotten used to it but it can still be surprising to the rest of us."

"What do you mean?" John asked as he looked at the former runner eat his way through what would have been dinner for three on any other tray.

"He means," Rodney answered as he picked up his dessert to sniff it and make sure it did not have lemons. "that while you might have taken to talking to the city like a duck to water, for the rest of us," he waved his arm around to encompass the rest of the team, "it still seems damn weird at times."

"Rodney, that doesn't have any lemon, for God's sake," John told him exasperatedly. "Just eat it, will you?"

"Just checking," Rodney muttered but started to eat it.

"Now, what do you mean I talk to the city and you guys find it weird?"

"Just that," Rodney gestured with his spoon and Sam had to lean out of the way to avoid being splattered with the food. "Oops, sorry," he apologized.

"That's ok," Sam waved the apology off with a smile. The weird thing was that it was ok. Since they've gotten to Atlantis, she'd seen Rodney in another light. He was like another person when he was around his team; still as arrogant as ever but now it was more endearing somehow. He just seemed more human. 'Guess being in Atlantis and in a team that's in constant danger has been good for him,' mused Sam. God knew having been in SG1 had changed her.

"Rodney, stop waving your utensils around and answer my question," John ordered and thought Rodney made a face, he nonetheless answered.

"It's just that sometimes the stuff you can do still takes us back and you don't even seem to notice it, you know," Rodney explained between mouthfuls of pudding.

John looked around at Ronon and Teyla to see what they thought of what Rodney had just said. Ronon nodded as he stuffed more food into his mouth and Teyla said, "Rodney is right, John. Your use of the city can sometimes be quite disconcerting."

"What? Why?" John asked bewildered; he didn't know what the others were talking about.

"Because we are not always prepared for when you use it, you take us by surprise." Teyla tried to explain.

SG1, former and present, looked at each other somewhat amused at John's confused expression; Sam, Daniel and Teal'c remembering another who always wore such a face and wondering if John really was confused or like Jack was putting on an act. Jack, for his part, was quite enjoying the show; he, unlike his team, knew that John was not faking the confusion – he had done so enough himself to know the signs; that wasn't to say that he didn't think the other man wasn't quite capable of faking it, they were family after all.

"What? But I only use it when we're on the jumper, and you know I'm doing it or when there's something we need – and you know what I'm doing! Besides, McKay, you have the gene – you use it too."

"Not with the ease or frequency you do, I don't. I have to really think and concentrate to use it but you just use it naturally." Rodney protested and when he saw John's still confused face, he asked with some surprise in his tone, "You don't even know what we're talking about, do you?"

"No, I don't," John answered through gritted teeth. "And if you don't start talking, so help me . . ."

"Alright, alright," Rodney said, putting his hands up. "No need to get testy."

"McKay," John growled threateningly.

"Rodney," Teyla said, putting her hand on John's arm. "Perhaps you'd best explain."

"Ok, ok. It's all the little things you do, that you apparently do without even knowing."

"Like what?" John asked perplexed.

"Like turning on all the lights in every room you enter as soon as you entered it." Rodney began.

"What?" John again looked around the group. "That doesn't happen automatically all around the city?"

"No," Said Teyla.

Ronon shook his head and asked, "You mean you don't turn them on using your mind," and he motioned to his head, "like you do with jumper?"

John shook his head, "No, the lights just come on by themselves. They always have; I've never thought anything about it."

"No," Rodney argued. "They don't come on by themselves; they never have. Whether you realized it or not, _you_ turn them on."

"_How_ can you not notice?" Cam asked again. John just grimaced and waved him off as Rodney continued talking.

"I bet you don't even know about the temp control, do you?" Rodney asked with something close to a smirk.

"No, Rodney," John answered with forced patience. "I don't know, why don't you tell me about it?" He invited with a wave of his hands.

"Well, you adjust the temperature in every room you enter – just like the lights."

"No, I don't," John automatically denied.

"Yes, you do." Rodney persisted.

"No, I don't," John insisted.

Sam smirked into her glass of water. The banter between John and Rodney was very similar to the banter that usually went on between Jack and Daniel, Cam and Daniel and even Vala and Daniel – though that one was, of course, sexually charged.

"John, you do," Teyla said quietly, effectively ending the childish word play that she knew from experience could go on indefinitely.

"I do?" John asked again, looking at Teyla.

"Yes," she answered simply, knowing Rodney would explain further.

"I thought that the control room regulated room temperature," John protested.

Rodney scoffed. "Please, you know what it would take for one computer to regulate the temperature of every room in this place?" He waved his hand around. "It'd be a full time job."

"Then how are the rooms kept so comfy?" He asked, looking somewhat confused.

Rodney, Teyla and Ronon shared looks. "By using the temp controls in every room. That way rooms that are unoccupied don't use our power for heating or cooling."

"There are temp controls in the rooms?" John asked surprised.

"Yes, there are," Teyla answered with a small smile.

"Huh, I've never seen them," John commented.

"That's because you've never needed them," Rodney said somewhat scathingly. "They are not exposed if they're not needed. And you've never needed them; hell, every time you come into my lab you mess up the temperature without moving a finger."

"Why haven't you said anything?" John asked.

"Because at first I didn't know what was going on. When I figured it out, I meant to say something but never found the time and then I thought you were doing it to mess with me and if I said something you would just keep doing it." Rodney explained.

John grunted and had to privately agree that that did sound like something he would do.

"Anything else he's been doing that he doesn't know about?" Vala asked from her seat by Daniel's side.

Rodney thought for a second and then said, "He's programmed every piece of Ancient technology he's used for his preference."

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked as John looked somewhat confused.

"I mean that every time he touches a piece of Ancient technology, he somehow . . ." He paused, looking for the correct word. "Imprints himself on them. It's like once he's touched them, they remember him. Actually, now that I think about it, I think that all the computers in Atlantis have his imprint. It's incredibly annoying, actually. The only way to change it is to do a complete reboot."

"Um. You know what this means, right?" Daniel asked and Jack nodded his head, John looked thoughtful and everyone else looked curious. "It means that Melia was right. If John hadn't been here, you wouldn't have been able access any of the city's computers." He explained and then added, "In fact, if he hadn't been part of the expedition you would all most likely had drown hours after you got here."

"What?" Rodney asked. "What do you mean? It was Elizabeth that went back in time and prevented us from drowning." He protested.

"Yes, but who was it that flew the jumper?" Daniel asked with a knowing look in Rodney's direction.

"Ok, that was Shepard, but anyone with the gene could have flown it," Rodney argued, moving his arms about and almost bumping Ronon.

"Yes, anyone could have flown it but not anyone could have activated the time travel device," surprisingly, it was Jack that made that observation.

Everyone looked at him surprised, with the exception of John, Daniel and Sam. This time it was Cam that asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that the time travel device, like every piece of sensitive technology in the city, could have only been activated by the person that invented or by the ruling families – or their descendant, in this case John." Jack explained. "No one else would have been able to initiate it. If John hadn't been here, Elizabeth wouldn't have been able to go back in time." He said with finality. What he didn't say but everyone knew was that if Elizabeth hadn't gone back in time, everyone would have died.

There was absolute silence as everyone, but John and Jack, looked at everyone else and thought about the implications of what had just been said. Jack looked at John as John closed his eyes and rubbed his hands over his face. The thought that he was responsible for every person in Atlantis being alive was overwhelming, thought he wasn't sure why because he had been the military leader and responsible for everyone's safety since practically the first day they've arrived. But this was somehow different; people's live had depended on him but not on what he did or didn't do but on him just being there – and for some reason that was just much more unnerving that knowing people's life depended on his actions.

He looked up after taking a big breath and his gaze collided with Jack's. Something in the General's eyes made John think that the older man knew just what had been going on in his mind. And then he realized that the Jack did know what was going on in his mind because the same things must have gone through his the first time he realized the fate of the world was on his shoulders not because of what he had done but because of something he had inherited and had had no say about. This realization really took the concept of being at the right place at the right time to a whole new level and was almost enough to make a person believe in fate.

But John was not someone who believed in fate, your life was what you make of it. And as he thought that this later information could only affect him as much as he let it, John started to calm down. It really didn't change things; he was still the military leader of Atlantis (though if General O'Neill was staying for any length of time, who knew how much longer that would be true), and the safety on everyone in the city was his priority. The fact that he was somehow the spare (and wasn't it weird to have that term apply to him?) heir to the Ancients had no impact on that – except that maybe now they could find an effective weapon to deal with the Wraith once and for all.

As Jack saw the burden that had descended on John's shoulders with his revelation, lightened, he nodded his head and went back to eating satisfied that the younger man wouldn't take on more than he had to. It was a lesson that had taken a lot of years for Jack to learn, but one was only responsible for one's actions and those things we could control. Things that were out of our control were best accepted and taken as they were; blaming oneself for them was pointless and a waste of time and energy that could be use in much better ways.

Jack was happy to see that it wouldn't take John as long as it took him to learn that lesson. He would hate to see him agonized over things he could have done nothing about. He shook his head as he mused that the others were right; the two of them really were a lot alike. But then, he had always thought so. There had been something in the other man's eyes when they first met that had spoken to Jack. The easy way in which he flew the helicopter, even when the drone was on their tail; the nonchalant acceptance of what to everyone else would have been unbelievable and the almost insubordinate, 'don't really care what you think' way he had stated that whether he went on to Atlantis was up to him had all reminded Jack of himself. And that was just why he had challenged him and dared him to accept the assignment instead of guilting him into it; Jack had known that the other man had enough guilt already and hadn't wanted to add any more.

He had his fork halfway to his mouth when he realized that the contact he's been having with John since they found the 'Atlantis highway' was somehow stronger and that he was actually starting to feel some of John's emotions and thoughts without looking for him. He brought his surprised eyes up and once again clashed gazes with John, who also had a surprise look on his face – more than that both of them realized that they could actually feel the other's surprise. Thankfully, as soon as they realized they were feeling the other one, they pull up barriers that were surprisingly easy to construct and keep up. They drew a sigh of relief when they realized the contact had happened because they had unconsciously dropped their shields.

Just as Jack and John were hinking how useful full blown telepathy between them would be, Jack felt Sam's eyes on him and with a sigh and an imperceptible movement to anyone else he let John know that they'd get back to exploring it later, John understood and turned his attention to Teyla as Jack turned his attention to Sam. For the moment, both heirs of Atlantis had much better things to do.


End file.
